Ecclesiastical History of England, by Bede

Book iii

Chap. I. How King Edwin's next successors lost both the faith of their nation and the kingdom; but the most
Christian King Oswald retrieved both. [633 a.d.]

Edwin being slain in battle, the kingdom of the Deiri, to which province his family belonged, and
where he first began to reign, passed to Osric, the son of his uncle Aelfric, who, through the preaching of Paulinus,
had also received the mysteries of the faith. But the kingdom of the Bernicians — for into these two provinces the
nation of the Northumbrians was formerly divided282— passed to Eanfrid, the
son of Ethelfrid,283 who derived his origin from the royal family of that
province. For all the time that Edwin reigned, the sons of the aforesaid Ethelfrid, who had reigned before him, with
many of the younger nobility, lived in banishment among the Scots or Picts, and were there instructed according to the
doctrine of the Scots, and were renewed with the grace of Baptism. Upon the death of the king, their enemy, they were
allowed to return home, and the aforesaid Eanfrid, as the eldest of them, became king of the Bernicians. Both those
kings,284 as soon as they obtained the government of their earthly kingdoms,
abjured and betrayed the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom to which they had been admitted, and again delivered
themselves up to defilement and perdition through the abominations of their former idolatry.

But soon after, the king of the Britons, Caedwalla,285 the unrighteous
instrument of rightful vengeance, slew them both. First, in the following summer, he put Osric to death; for, being
rashly besieged by him in the municipal town,286
he sallied out on a sudden with all his forces, took him by surprise, and destroyed him and all his army. Then, when he
had occupied the provinces of the Northumbrians for a whole year,287 not
ruling them like a victorious king, but ravaging them like a furious tyrant, he at length put an end to Eanfrid, in
like manner, when he unadvisedly came to him with only twelve chosen soldiers, to sue for peace. To this day, that year
is looked upon as ill-omened, and hateful to all good men; as well on account of the apostacy of the English kings, who
had renounced the mysteries of the faith, as of the outrageous tyranny of the British king. Hence it has been generally
agreed, in reckoning the dates of the kings, to abolish the memory of those faithless monarchs, and to assign that year
to the reign of the following king, Oswald, a man beloved of God. This king, after the death of his brother
Eanfrid,288 advanced with an army, small, indeed, in number, but
strengthened with the faith of Christ; and the impious commander of the Britons, in spite of his vast forces, which he
boasted nothing could withstand, was slain at a place called in the English tongue Denisesburna, that is, the brook of
Denis.289

286.“In oppido municipio.” Commentators are agreed that Bede
means York. It was a Roman “Colonia,” and is called a “municipium” by
Aurelius Victor, though whether Bede attaches any definitely Roman meaning to the term seems doubtful. Ducange explains
“municipium” as “castrum,”“castellum muris
cinctum.”

287. From the death of Edwin (October 12th, 633), for Oswald's reign is reckoned as
lasting nine years, including the “hateful year,” and he was killed August 5th, 642. Cf.
infra c. 9.

289. Not identified with any certainty, but probably the Rowley Water or a tributary
of it. It cannot be, as has been suggested, the Devil's Water, which is clearly distinguished from it in a charter of
the thirteenth century. Caedwalla must have fled southwards for eight or nine miles after the battle (cf. next
note).

Chap. ii. How, among innumerable other miracles of healing wrought by the wood of the cross, which King Oswald,
being ready to engage against the barbarians, erected, a certain man had his injured arm healed. [634 a.d.]

The place is shown to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald, being about to engage in
this battle, erected the symbol of the Holy Cross, and knelt down and prayed to God that he would send help from Heaven
to his worshippers in their sore need. Then, we are told, that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which
it was to be set up, the king himself, in the ardour of his faith, laid hold of it and held it upright with both his
hands, till the earth was heaped up by the soldiers and it was fixed. Thereupon, uplifting his voice, he cried to his
whole army, “Let us all kneel, and together beseech the true and living God Almighty in His mercy to
defend us from the proud and cruel enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our
nation.” All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day,
they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved. In the place where they prayed very many miracles of healing are
known to have been wrought, as a token and memorial of the king's faith; for even to this day, many are wont to cut off
small splinters from the wood of the holy cross, and put them into water, which they give to sick men or cattle to
drink, or they sprinkle them therewith, and these are presently restored to health.

The place is called in the English tongue Hefenfelth, or the Heavenly Field,290 which name it undoubtedly received of old as a presage of what was
afterwards to happen, denoting, that the heavenly trophy was to be erected, the heavenly victory begun, and heavenly
miracles shown forth to this day. The place is near the wall in the north which the Romans formerly drew across the
whole of Britain from sea to sea, to restrain the onslaught of the barbarous nations, as has been said before. Hither
also the brothers of the church of Hagustald,291 which is not far distant,
long ago made it their custom to resort every year, on the day before that on which King Oswald was afterwards slain,
to keep vigils there for the health of his soul, and having sung many psalms of praise, to offer for him in the morning
the sacrifice of the Holy Oblation. And since that good custom has spread, they have lately built a church there, which
has attached additional sanctity and honour in the eyes of all men to that place;292 and this with good reason; for it appears that there was no symbol of the Christian faith, no
church, no altar erected throughout all the nation of the Bernicians, before that new leader in war, prompted by the
zeal of his faith, set up this standard of the Cross as he was going to give battle to his barbarous enemy.

Nor is it foreign to our purpose to relate one of the many miracles that have been wrought at this cross. One of the
brothers of the same church of Hagulstald, whose name is Bothelm, and who is still living, a few years ago, walking
carelessly on the ice at night, suddenly fell and broke his arm; he was soon tormented with a most grievous pain in the
broken part, so that he could not lift his arm to his mouth for the anguish. Hearing one morning that one of the
brothers designed to go up to the place of the holy cross, he desired him, on his return, to
bring him a piece of that sacred wood, saying, he believed that with the mercy of God he might thereby be healed. The
brother did as he was desired; and returning in the evening, when the brothers were sitting at table, gave him some of
the old moss which grew on the surface of the wood. As he sat at table, having no place to bestow the gift which was
brought him, he put it into his bosom; and forgetting, when he went to bed, to put it away, left it in his bosom.
Awaking in the middle of the night, he felt something cold lying by his side, and putting his hand upon it to feel what
it was, he found his arm and hand as sound as if he had never felt any such pain.

290. For another instance of a name with an inner meaning, cf. II, 15. The site of the battle is probably seven or eight miles north of Hexham (v. next
note), Oswald having taken up his position on the northern side of the Roman wall between the Tyne and the Solway
(i.e., the wall attributed to Hadrian, cf. I, 12, p. 25, note). According to tradition the battle was finally won at a place called Halydene
(Hallington?), two miles to the east.

291. Hexham. Wilfrid built a magnificent church there between the years 672-678 on
land given by Ethelthryth, wife of Egfrid, king of Northumbria. It became the see of a bishop in 678 when the great
northern diocese was subdivided by Theodore (v.IV,
12). Bede's own monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow was in the diocese of Hexham. The bishopric became extinct in
821.

292. The place is still called St. Oswald's, and a little chapel probably marks the
spot.

Chap. iii. How the same king Oswald, asking a bishop of the Scottish nation, had Aidan sent him, and granted him an
episcopal see in the Isle of Lindisfarne. [635 a.d.]

The same Oswald, as soon as he ascended the throne, being desirous that all the nation under his
rule should be endued with the grace of the Christian faith, whereof he had found happy experience in vanquishing the
barbarians, sent to the elders of the Scots,293 among whom himself and his
followers, when in banishment, had received the sacrament of Baptism, desiring that they would send him a bishop, by
whose instruction and ministry the English nation, which he governed, might learn the privileges and receive the
Sacraments of the faith of our Lord. Nor were they slow in granting his request; for they sent him Bishop Aidan, a man
of singular gentleness, piety, and moderation; having a zeal of God, but not fully according to knowledge; for he was
wont to keep Easter Sunday according to the custom of his country, which we have before so often mentioned,294 from the fourteenth to the twentieth of the moon; the northern province of the
Scots, and all the nation of the Picts, at that time still celebrating Easter after that
manner, and believing that in this observance they followed the writings of the holy and praiseworthy Father
Anatolius.295 Whether this be true, every instructed person can easily
judge. But the Scots which dwelt in the South of Ireland had long since, by the admonition of the Bishop of the
Apostolic see, learned to observe Easter according to the canonical custom.296

On the arrival of the bishop, the king appointed him his episcopal see in the island of Lindisfarne,297 as he desired. Which place, as the tide ebbs and flows, is twice a day enclosed
by the waves of the sea like an island; and again, twice, when the beach is left dry, becomes contiguous with the land.
The king also humbly and willingly in all things giving ear to his admonitions, industriously applied himself to build
up and extend the Church of Christ in his kingdom; wherein, when the bishop, who was not perfectly skilled in the
English tongue, preached the Gospel, it was a fair sight to see the king himself interpreting the Word of God to his
ealdormen and thegns, for he had thoroughly learned the language of the Scots during his long banishment. From that
time many came daily into Britain from the country of the Scots, and with great devotion preached the Word to those
provinces of the English, over which King Oswald reigned, and those among them that had received priest's orders,298 administered the grace of Baptism to
the believers. Churches were built in divers places; the people joyfully flocked together to hear the Word; lands and
other property were given of the king's bounty to found monasteries; English children, as well as their elders, were
instructed by their Scottish teachers in study and the observance of monastic discipline. For most of those who came to
preach were monks. Bishop Aidan was himself a monk, having been sent out from the island called Hii,299 whereof the monastery was for a long time the chief of almost all those of the
northern Scots,300 and all those of the Picts, and had the direction of
their people. That island belongs to Britain, being divided from it by a small arm of the sea, but had been long since
given by the Picts, who inhabit those parts of Britain, to the Scottish monks, because they had received the faith of
Christ through their preaching.

295. Bishop of Laodicea, circ. 284 a.d. According to Eusebius, he was the first to arrange the cycle of nineteen years. The Canon quoted by
the Celts in support of their observance of Easter is proved to be a forgery, probably of the seventh century and of
British origin.

296. Probably they adopted Catholic customs about 633, after the return of their
delegates sent to consult the Roman Church on this question in 631.

297. Cf. Preface, p. 4, note 3.
The Celtic missionaries were generally attracted to remote sites, and this, the first mission station of the Celtic
Church in Northumbria, was doubtless chosen for the resemblance of its physical features to Iona. The constitution was
also modelled on that of Iona, with this difference, that it was an episcopal see as well as a monastery. It was
included in the “province” of the Abbot of Iona. The Bishop and all the clergy were monks, and
Aidan himself was Abbot as well as Bishop.

298.“Sacerdotali,” perhaps (but not necessarily here) =
“episcopal,” as often. There may have been a number of the Irish non-diocesan bishops in the
mission.

299. Iona, a name supposed to have arisen from a mistaken reading of Ioua, an adjectival form used by Adamnan (v. infra note 4), feminine,
agreeing with insula, formed from the Irish name, I, Ii, Hii, etc. (the forms vary
greatly). Then “Iona” was fancifully regarded as the Hebrew equivalent for Columba (= a dove), and this helped to preserve the name.

Chap. iv. When the nation of the Picts received the faith of Christ. [565 a.d.]

In the year of our Lord 565, when Justin, the younger, the successor of Justinian, obtained the
government of the Roman empire, there came into Britain from Ireland a famous priest and abbot, marked as a monk by
habit and manner of life, whose name was Columba,301 to preach the word of God to the provinces of the northern Picts, who are separated from the southern
parts belonging to that nation by steep and rugged mountains. For the southern Picts, who dwell on this side of those
mountains, had, it is said, long before forsaken the errors of idolatry, and received the true faith by the preaching
of Bishop Ninias,302 a most reverend and holy man of the British nation, who
had been regularly instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the truth; whose episcopal see, named after St.
Martin the bishop, and famous for a church dedicated to him (wherein Ninias himself and many other saints rest in the
body), is now in the possession of the English nation. The place belongs to the province of the Bernicians, and is
commonly called the White House,303 because he there built a church of stone, which was not usual among the Britons.

Columba came into Britain in the ninth year of the reign of Bridius, who was the son of Meilochon,304 and the powerful king of the Pictish nation, and he converted that nation to the
faith of Christ, by his preaching and example. Wherefore he also received of them the gift of the aforesaid island
whereon to found a monastery. It is not a large island, but contains about five families, according to the English
computation; his successors hold it to this day; he was also buried therein, having died at the age of seventy-seven,
about thirty-two years after he came into Britain to preach.305 Before he
crossed over into Britain, he had built a famous monastery in Ireland, which, from the great number of oaks, is in the
Scottish tongue called Dearmach — The Field of Oaks.306 From both these
monasteries, many others had their beginning through his disciples, both in Britain and Ireland; but the island
monastery where his body lies, has the pre-eminence among them all.

That island has for its ruler an abbot, who is a priest, to whose jurisdiction all the province, and even the
bishops, contrary to the usual method, are bound to be subject, according to the example of their first teacher, who
was not a bishop, but a priest and monk;307 of whose life and discourses some records are said to be preserved by his disciples. But whatsoever he was
himself, this we know for certain concerning him, that he left successors renowned for their continence, their love of
God, and observance of monastic rules. It is true they employed doubtful cycles in fixing the time of the great
festival, as having none to bring them the synodal decrees for the observance of Easter, by reason of their being so
far away from the rest of the world; but they earnestly practised such works of piety and chastity as they could learn
from the Prophets, the Gospels and the Apostolic writings. This manner of keeping Easter continued among them no little
time, to wit, for the space of 150 years, till the year of our Lord 715.

But then the most reverend and holy father and priest, Egbert,308 of the
English nation, who had long lived in banishment in Ireland for the sake of Christ, and was most learned in the
Scriptures, and renowned for long perfection of life, came among them, corrected their error, and led them to observe
the true and canonical day of Easter; which, nevertheless, they did not always keep on the fourteenth of the moon with
the Jews, as some imagined, but on Sunday, although not in the proper week.309 For, as Christians, they knew that the Resurrection of our Lord, which happened on the first day
of the week, was always to be celebrated on the first day of the week; but being rude and barbarous, they had not
learned when that same first day after the Sabbath, which is now called the Lord's day, should come. But because they
had not failed in the grace of fervent charity, they were accounted worthy to receive the full knowledge of this matter also, according to the promise of the Apostle, “And if in
any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”310 Of which we shall speak more fully hereafter in its proper place.

301. For St. Columba, v. Dr. Reeves's edition of the life by
Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, 679-704 (cf. V, 15, note). Authorities are
divided with regard to the date of his coming to Britain. Dr. Reeves and Mr. Skene, following the Annals of Tighernach,
decide in favour of 563. For his name, “Columcille,” cf. V, 9, note. He was of Irish birth, connected with the Dalriadic Scots, and of royal descent on
both sides of his house. He was ordained priest at Clonard, but was never a bishop. Many ecclesiastical and monastic
foundations throughout Ireland and Scotland are attributed to him. He travelled much in both countries, visited Bruide
(v. infra) at Inverness, and founded churches all over the north of Scotland. He also worked
indefatigably in his own monastery of Iona. In his earlier years his excitable, impatient temperament seems to have
involved him in various wars. He is said to have stirred up his kinsmen against the Irish king, Diarmaid; and it has
been supposed that his mission to the Picts was undertaken in expiation of the bloodshed for which he was
responsible.

302. There is much that is legendary in the account of St. Ninias, and Bede only
professes to give the tradition. He was a Briton, probably a native of Strathclyde. He studied at Rome and received
episcopal consecration there; came under the influence of St. Martin of Tours, to whom he afterwards dedicated his
church in Galloway, and returned as a missionary to Britain. His preaching led to the conversion of the Picts of
Galloway and those to whom Bede alludes here as situated to the south of the Grampians. Irish tradition, difficult to
reconcile with Bede's statement that he was buried at Whitern, tells that he spent the last years of his life in
Ireland and founded a church at Leinster. He was commemorated there on September 16th, under the name of Moinenn. The
traditional date of his death, September 16th, 432, has no authority.

303. Whitern, on Wigton Bay, so called from the white appearance of the stone
church, as compared with the usual wooden buildings. The dedication must have been subsequent to St. Martin's death,
circ. 397. The see was revived as an Anglian one in Bede's own time (v.
V. 23, p. 381). For the form of the name, “Ad Candidam
Casam,” cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

304. Bruide Mac Maelchon had defeated the Dalriadic Scots in 560 a.d. and driven them back to Cantyre. Northwards his dominion extended as far as the Orkneys and it is
probable that it included the eastern lowlands north of the Forth (cf. Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain”).
Another tradition (Irish) represents Conall, King of the Dalriadic Scots, as the donor of Iona, but the earliest Irish
authority (ninth or tenth century) agrees with Bede.

305. The year in which he died, as well as the ultimate resting-place of his relics,
is uncertain. Dr. Reeves places his death in 597, the year of St. Augustine's landing.

307. There was no diocesan episcopate in the early Irish Church; it was organized on
a monastic system. Bishops performed all episcopal functions (ordination, etc.), but they lived in the monastery,
subject to the supreme authority of the abbot, who was aided in the government by a council of senior monks. Bishops
were also sent out as missionaries. The functions of abbot and bishop might be combined in one man, but the abbot, as
such, could discharge no episcopal duties. A great monastery was head of a “provincia”
(“diocesis,”“parochia”), and had many monasteries and churches dependent
on it.

Chap. V. Of the life of Bishop Aidan. [635 a.d.]

From this island, then, and the fraternity of these monks, Aidan was sent to instruct the English
nation in Christ, having received the dignity of a bishop. At that time Segeni,311 abbot and priest, presided over that monastery. Among other lessons in holy living, Aidan left
the clergy a most salutary example of abstinence and continence; it was the highest commendation of his doctrine with
all men, that he taught nothing that he did not practise in his life among his brethren; for he neither sought nor
loved anything of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately among the poor whom he met whatsoever was given
him by the kings or rich men of the world. He was wont to traverse both town and country on foot, never on horseback,
unless compelled by some urgent necessity; to the end that, as he went, he might turn aside to any whomsoever he saw,
whether rich or poor, and call upon them, if infidels, to receive the mystery of the faith, or, if they were believers,
strengthen them in the faith, and stir them up by words and actions to giving of alms and the performance of good
works.

His course of life was so different from the slothfulness of our times, that all those who bore him company, whether
they were tonsured or laymen, had to study either reading the Scriptures, or learning psalms. This was the daily
employment of himself and all that were with him, wheresoever they went; and if it happened, which was but seldom, that
he was invited to the king's table, he went with one or two clerks, and having taken a
little food, made haste to be gone, either to read with his brethren or to pray. At that time, many religious men and
women, led by his example, adopted the custom of prolonging their fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, till the ninth hour,
throughout the year, except during the fifty days after Easter. Never, through fear or respect of persons, did he keep
silence with regard to the sins of the rich; but was wont to correct them with a severe rebuke. He never gave money to
the powerful men of the world, but only food, if he happened to entertain them; and, on the contrary, whatsoever gifts
of money he received from the rich, he either distributed, as has been said, for the use of the poor, or bestowed in
ransoming such as had been wrongfully sold for slaves. Moreover, he afterwards made many of those he had ransomed his
disciples, and after having taught and instructed them, advanced them to priest's orders.

It is said, that when King Oswald had asked a bishop of the Scots to administer the Word of faith to him and his
nation, there was first sent to him another man of more harsh disposition,312 who, after preaching for some time to the English and meeting with no success, not being gladly
heard by the people, returned home, and in an assembly of the elders reported, that he had not been able to do any good
by his teaching to the nation to whom he had been sent, because they were intractable men, and of a stubborn and
barbarous disposition. They then, it is said, held a council and seriously debated what was to be done, being desirous
that the nation should obtain the salvation it demanded, but grieving that they had not received the preacher sent to
them. Then said Aidan, who was also present in the council, to the priest in question, “Methinks,
brother, that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been, and did not at first,
conformably to the Apostolic rule, give them the milk of more easy doctrine, till, being by degrees nourished with the
Word of God, they should be capable of receiving that which is more perfect and of
performing the higher precepts of God.” Having heard these words, all present turned their attention to him and
began diligently to weigh what he had said, and they decided that he was worthy to be made a bishop, and that he was
the man who ought to be sent to instruct the unbelieving and unlearned; since he was found to be endued preeminently
with the grace of discretion, which is the mother of the virtues. So they ordained him and sent him forth to preach;
and, as time went on, his other virtues became apparent, as well as that temperate discretion which had marked him at
first.

311. Cf. II, 19. He is probably to be
identified with the Segenus mentioned there as one of the priests to whom Pope John's letter was addressed. He was
Abbot of Iona, 623-652.

King Oswald, with the English nation which he governed, being instructed by the teaching of this
bishop, not only learned to hope for a heavenly kingdom unknown to his fathers, but also obtained of the one God, Who
made heaven and earth, a greater earthly kingdom than any of his ancestors. In brief, he brought under his dominion all
the nations and provinces of Britain, which are divided into four languages, to wit, those of the Britons, the Picts,
the Scots, and the English.313 Though raised to that height of regal power,
wonderful to relate, he was always humble, kind, and generous to the poor and to strangers.

To give one instance, it is told, that when he was once sitting at dinner, on the holy day of Easter, with the
aforesaid bishop, and a silver dish full of royal dainties was set before him, and they were just about to put forth
their hands to bless the bread, the servant, whom he had appointed to relieve the needy, came in on a sudden, and told
the king, that a great multitude of poor folk from all parts was sitting in the streets begging alms of the king; he immediately ordered the meat set before him to be carried to the poor, and the dish to
be broken in pieces and divided among them. At which sight, the bishop who sat by him, greatly rejoicing at such an act
of piety, clasped his right hand and said, “May this hand never decay.” This fell out according
to his prayer, for his hands with the arms being cut off from his body, when he was slain in battle, remain uncorrupted
to this day, and are kept in a silver shrine, as revered relics, in St. Peter's church in the royal city,314 which has taken its name from Bebba, one of its former queens. Through this
king's exertions the provinces of the Deiri and the Bernicians, which till then had been at variance, were peacefully
united and moulded into one people. He was nephew to King Edwin through his sister Acha; and it was fit that so great a
predecessor should have in his own family such an one to succeed him in his religion and sovereignty.

314. Bamborough (Bebbanburh, Bebburgh, Babbanburch, etc. There are many forms of the
name). It is uncertain who the queen was. Nennius says she was the wife of Ethelfrid. His wife, Oswald's mother, was
Acha (v. infra), but he may have been married twice. It was Ida, the first king of Bernicia,
who founded Bamborough (Sax. Chron.).

Chap. vii. How the West Saxons received the Word of God by the preaching of Birinus; and of his successors,
Agilbert and Leutherius. [635-670 a.d.]

At that time, the West Saxons, formerly called Gewissae,315 in the reign of Cynegils,316 received the faith of
Christ, through the preaching of Bishop Birinus,317 who came into Britain by
the counsel of Pope Honorius;318 having promised in his presence that he
would sow the seed of the holy faith in the farthest inland regions of the English, where no
other teacher had been before him. Hereupon at the bidding of the Pope he received episcopal consecration from
Asterius, bishop of Genoa;319 but on his arrival in Britain, he first came
to the nation of the Gewissae, and finding all in that place confirmed pagans, he thought it better to preach the Word
there, than to proceed further to seek for other hearers of his preaching.

Now, as he was spreading the Gospel in the aforesaid province, it happened that when the king himself, having
received instruction as a catechumen, was being baptized together with his people, Oswald, the most holy and victorious
king of the Northumbrians, being present, received him as he came forth from baptism, and by an honourable alliance
most acceptable to God, first adopted as his son, thus born again and dedicated to God, the man whose daughter320 he was about to receive in marriage. The two kings gave to the bishop the city
called Dorcic,321 there to establish his episcopal see; where having built
and consecrated churches, and by his pious labours called many to the Lord, he departed to the Lord, and was buried in
the same city; but many years after, when Haedde was bishop,322 he was
translated thence to the city of Venta,323 and
laid in the church of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.

When the king died, his son Coinwalch324 succeeded him on the throne, but
refused to receive the faith and the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom; and not long after he lost also the dominion of
his earthly kingdom; for he put away the sister of Penda, king of the Mercians, whom he had married, and took another
wife; whereupon a war ensuing, he was by him deprived of his kingdom, and withdrew to Anna, king of the East Angles,
where he lived three years in banishment, and learned and received the true faith; for the king, with whom he lived in
his banishment, was a good man, and happy in a good and saintly offspring, as we shall show hereafter.325

But when Coinwalch was restored to his kingdom, there came into that province out of Ireland, a certain bishop
called Agilbert,326 a native of Gaul, but who had then lived a long time in
Ireland, for the purpose of reading the Scriptures. He attached himself to the king, and voluntarily undertook the
ministry of preaching. The king, observing his learning and industry, desired him to accept an episcopal see there and
remain as the bishop of his people. Agilbert complied with the request, and presided over
that nation as their bishop for many years. At length the king, who understood only the language of the Saxons, weary
of his barbarous tongue, privately brought into the province another bishop, speaking his own language, by name
Wini,327 who had also been ordained in Gaul; and dividing his province into
two dioceses, appointed this last his episcopal see in the city of Venta, by the Saxons called Wintancaestir.328 Agilbert, being highly offended, that the king should do this without consulting
him, returned into Gaul, and being made bishop of the city of Paris, died there, being old and full of days. Not many
years after his departure out of Britain, Wini was also expelled from his bishopric by the same king, and took refuge
with Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, of whom he purchased for money the see of the city of London,329 and remained bishop thereof till his death. Thus the province of the West Saxons
continued no small time without a bishop.

During which time, the aforesaid king of that nation, sustaining repeatedly very great losses in his kingdom from
his enemies, at length bethought himself, that as he had been before expelled from the throne for his unbelief, he had
been restored when he acknowledged the faith of Christ; and he perceived that his kingdom, being deprived of a bishop,
was justly deprived also of the Divine protection. He, therefore, sent messengers into Gaul to Agilbert, with humble
apologies entreating him to return to the bishopric of his nation. But he excused himself, and protested that he could
not go, because he was bound to the bishopric of his own city and diocese; notwithstanding, in order to give him some
help in answer to his earnest request, he sent thither in his stead the priest
Leutherius,330 his nephew, to be ordained as his bishop, if he thought fit,
saying that he thought him worthy of a bishopric. The king and the people received him honourably, and asked Theodore,
then Archbishop of Canterbury, to consecrate him as their bishop. He was accordingly consecrated in the same city, and
many years diligently governed the whole bishopric of the West Saxons by synodical authority.

316. Cf. note on Cuichelm, II, 9.
Cynegils began to reign in 611 and reigned about thirty-one years.

317. This account tells us substantially all that is known of him. Additional
details are either legendary or conjectural. He was made a missionary (“regionary”) bishop,
i.e., had no fixed see assigned to him.

319. He was Archbishop of Milan, residing at Genoa. “Asterius
. . . like his predecessors from 568, avoided contact with the dominant Arian Lombards by residing within the
imperial territory at Genoa” (Bright).

321. Dorchester, about nine miles from Oxford, near the junction of the Thame and
the Thames. The Abbey Church of SS. Peter and Paul stands on the traditional site of Cynegil's baptism. The see became
extinct on the retirement of Agilbert (v. infra), but there are some grounds for believing that
it was revived for a short time as a Mercian see in 679 (v. p. 272, note), after which it again disappeared till, in the ninth century, the Bishop of
Leicester moved his see to Dorchester.

322.IV, 12; V, 18. Haedde became bishop in 676 (Sax. Chron.). His see was at Winchester. He removed the
bones of Birinus, because Dorchester had ceased to be an episcopal see. Winchester continued to be the only West Saxon
see till the diocese was again divided (v.V,
18), when Daniel was established at Winchester, and Aldhelm at Sherborne.

323. Winchester; Gwent (Celtic) = a plain. This, the
“old Church,” as distinguished from the present Cathedral, was built by Coinwalch on his
restoration to his kingdom. There are legends of early British churches on the site, the first founded by “King Lucius” (I, 4), the second dedicated to “St. Amphibalus” (I, 7, p. 15, note).

324. Cuichelm (v.II, 9, and note) had died before his father, Cynegils.

326. Cc. 25, 26, 28; IV, 1; V, 19. The name is a Frankish form of the English “Aethelbert.” He was apparently consecrated in Gaul, but not appointed to any diocese.

327. Cf. c. 28. It is not known why he was
expelled (v. infra). There is a tradition that he spent the last three years of his life at
Winchester as a penitent, doubtless for the act of simony related below, but this is inconsistent with Bede's statement
that he remained Bishop of London till his death.

329. London was an East Saxon bishopric, but Wulfhere (v. c.
24, ad fin.) had acquired the supremacy over the East
Saxons (v. c. 30).

330. Hlothere, consecrated 670. Apparently he was appointed by a West Saxon Synod
(“ex synodica sanctione”). Dr. Bright thinks the term is used loosely for a Witenagemot.

Chap. viii. How Earconbert, King of Kent, ordered the idols to be destroyed; and of his daughter Earcongota, and
his kinswoman Ethelberg, virgins consecrated to God. [640 a.d.]

In the year of our Lord 640, Eadbald,331 king of Kent,
departed this life, and left his kingdom to his son Earconbert, who governed it most nobly twenty-four years and some
months. He was the first of the English kings that of his supreme authority commanded the idols throughout his whole
kingdom to be forsaken and destroyed, and the fast of forty days to be observed; and that the same might not be lightly
neglected, he appointed fitting and condign punishments for the offenders. His daughter Earcongota, as became the
offspring of such a parent, was a most virtuous virgin, serving God in a monastery in the country of the Franks, built
by a most noble abbess, named Fara, at a place called In Brige;332 for at
that time but few monasteries had been built in the country of the Angles, and many were wont, for the sake of monastic
life, to repair to the monasteries of the Franks or Gauls; and they also sent their
daughters there to be instructed, and united to their Heavenly Bridegroom, especially in the monasteries of Brige, of
Cale,333 and Andilegum.334 Among
whom was also Saethryth,335 daughter of the wife of Anna, king of the East
Angles, above mentioned; and Ethelberg,336 the king's own daughter; both of
whom, though strangers, were for their virtue made abbesses of the monastery of Brige. Sexburg,337 that king's elder daughter, wife to Earconbert, king of Kent, had a daughter called
Earcongota,338 of whom we are about to speak.

Many wonderful works and miracles of this virgin, dedicated to God, are to this day related by the inhabitants of
that place; but for us it shall suffice to say something briefly of her departure out of this world to the heavenly
kingdom. The day of her summoning drawing near, she began to visit in the monastery the cells of the infirm handmaidens
of Christ, and particularly those that were of a great age, or most noted for their virtuous life, and humbly
commending herself to their prayers, she let them know that her death was at hand, as she had learnt by revelation,
which she said she had received in this manner. She had seen a band of men, clothed in white, come into the monastery,
and being asked by her what they wanted, and what they did there, they answered, “They had been sent
thither to carry away with them the gold coin that had been brought thither from Kent.” Towards the close of
that same night, as morning began to dawn, leaving the darkness of this world, she departed to the light of heaven.
Many of the brethren of that monastery who were in other houses, declared they had then plainly heard choirs of singing
angels, and, as it were, the sound of a multitude entering the monastery. Whereupon going out immediately to see what
it might be, they beheld a great light coming down from heaven, which bore that holy soul,
set loose from the bonds of the flesh, to the eternal joys of the celestial country. They also tell of other miracles
that were wrought that night in the same monastery by the power of God; but as we must proceed to other matters, we
leave them to be related by those whose concern they are. The body of this venerable virgin and bride of Christ was
buried in the church of the blessed protomartyr, Stephen. It was thought fit, three days after, to take up the stone
that covered the tomb, and to raise it higher in the same place, and whilst they were doing this, so sweet a fragrance
rose from below, that it seemed to all the brethren and sisters there present, as if a store of balsam had been
opened.

Her aunt also, Ethelberg, of whom we have spoken, preserved the glory, acceptable to God, of perpetual virginity, in
a life of great self-denial, but the extent of her virtue became more conspicuous after her death. Whilst she was
abbess, she began to build in her monastery a church, in honour of all the Apostles, wherein she desired that her body
should be buried; but when that work was advanced half way, she was prevented by death from finishing it, and was
buried in the place in the church which she had chosen. After her death, the brothers occupied themselves with other
things, and this structure was left untouched for seven years, at the expiration whereof they resolved, by reason of
the greatness of the work, wholly to abandon the building of the church, and to remove the abbess's bones thence to
some other church that was finished and consecrated. On opening her tomb, they found the body as untouched by decay as
it had been free from the corruption of carnal concupiscence, and having washed it again and clothed it in other
garments, they removed it to the church of the blessed Stephen, the Martyr. And her festival is wont to be celebrated
there with much honour on the 7th of July.

332. Faremoûtier-en-Brie (Farae Monasterium in Brige), founded circ. 617 by Fara, or Burgundofara, a Burgundian lady of noble birth, said to have been dedicated by St.
Columba in her infancy. The monastery was a double one, i.e., consisted of monks and nuns (cf.
infra, “many of the brethren”).

333. Chelles, near Paris, founded by Clothilde, wife of Clovis I, restored and
enlarged by Bathild, wife of Clovis II (v.V, 19,
note).

Chap. ix. How miracles of healing have been frequently wrought in the place where King Oswald was killed; and how,
first, a traveller's horse was restored and afterwards a young girl cured of the palsy. [642 a.d.]

Oswald, the most Christian king of the Northumbrians, reigned nine years, including that year which
was held accursed for the barbarous cruelty of the king of the Britons and the reckless apostacy of the English kings;
for, as was said above,339 it is agreed by the unanimous consent of all,
that the names and memory of the apostates should be erased from the catalogue of the Christian kings, and no year
assigned to their reign. After which period, Oswald was killed in a great battle, by the same pagan nation and pagan
king of the Mercians, who had slain his predecessor Edwin, at a place called in the English tongue Maserfelth,340 in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the fifth day of the month of
August.341

How great his faith was towards God, and how remarkable his devotion, has been made evident by miracles even after
his death; for, in the place where he was killed by the pagans, fighting for his country, sick men and cattle are
frequently healed to this day. Whence it came to pass that many took up the very dust of the place where his body fell,
and putting it into water, brought much relief with it to their friends who were sick. This custom came so much into
use, that the earth being carried away by degrees, a hole was made as deep as the height of a man. Nor is it surprising
that the sick should be healed in the place where he died; for, whilst he lived, he never ceased to provide for the
poor and the sick, and to bestow alms on them, and assist them. Many miracles are said to
have been wrought in that place, or with the dust carried from it; but we have thought it sufficient to mention two,
which we have heard from our elders.

It happened, not long after his death, that a man was travelling on horseback near that place, when his horse on a
sudden fell sick, stood still, hung his head, and foamed at the mouth, and, at length, as his pain increased, he fell
to the ground; the rider dismounted, and taking off his saddle,342 waited to
see whether the beast would recover or die. At length, after writhing for a long time in extreme anguish, the horse
happened in his struggles to come to the very place where the great king died. Immediately the pain abated, the beast
ceased from his frantic kicking, and, after the manner of horses, as if resting from his weariness, he rolled from side
to side, and then starting up, perfectly recovered, began to graze hungrily on the green herbage. The rider observing
this, and being an intelligent man, concluded that there must be some wonderful sanctity in the place where the horse
had been healed, and he marked the spot. After which he again mounted his horse, and went on to the inn where he
intended to stop. On his arrival he found a girl, niece to the landlord, who had long been sick of the palsy; and when
the members of the household, in his presence, lamented the girl's grievous calamity, he gave them an account of the
place where his horse had been cured. In brief, she was put into a wagon and carried to the place and laid down there.
At first she slept awhile, and when she awoke, found herself healed of her infirmity. Upon which she called for water,
washed her face, arranged her hair, put a kerchief on her head, and returned home on foot, in good health, with those
who had brought her.

340. The place is commonly supposed to be near Oswestry in Shropshire (i.e., Oswald's Tree). There is a legend (related by Reginald) which tells of a tree near the spot, to which
a large bird carried the king's right arm from the stake (cf. c. 12ad fin.). The Welsh name of the place, “Croes Oswallt” (Cross-Oswald), points to the
explanation that the “tree” was a wooden cross set up to mark the site.

342. Reading stramine subtracto, on the authority of
the oldest MSS., in which case we must assume (with Plummer) that stramen is used
incorrectly for stragulus in the sense of “saddle,” or
“horse-cloth,” from the classical use, sternere equum = to
saddle. Cf. “stratus regaliter,” c. 14. Later MSS. read
stramine substrato (= “spreading straw under him”).

Chap. X. How the dust of that place prevailed against fire. [After 642 a.d.]

About the same time, another traveller, a Briton, as is reported, happened to pass by the same
place, where the aforesaid battle was fought. Observing one particular spot of ground greener and more beautiful than
any other part of the field, he had the wisdom to infer that the cause of the unusual greenness in that place must be
that some person of greater holiness than any other in the army had been killed there. He therefore took along with him
some of the dust of that piece of ground, tying it up in a linen cloth, supposing, as was indeed the case, that it
would be of use for curing sick people, and proceeding on his journey, came in the evening to a certain village, and
entered a house where the villagers were feasting at supper. Being received by the owners of the house, he sat down
with them at the entertainment, hanging the cloth, with the dust which he had carried in it, on a post in the wall.
They sat long at supper and drank deep. Now there was a great fire in the middle of the room, and it happened that the
sparks flew up and caught the roof of the house, which being made of wattles and thatch, was suddenly wrapped in
flames; the guests ran out in panic and confusion, but they were not able to save the burning house, which was rapidly
being destroyed. Wherefore the house was burnt down, and only that post on which the dust hung in the linen cloth
remained safe and untouched by the fire. When they beheld this miracle, they were all amazed, and inquiring into it
diligently, learned that the dust had been taken from the place where the blood of King Oswald had been shed. These
wonderful works being made known and reported abroad, many began daily to resort to that place, and received the
blessing of health for themselves and their friends.

Chap. xi. How a light from Heaven stood all night over his relics, and how those possessed with devils were healed
by them. [679-697 a.d.]

Among the rest, I think we ought not to pass over in silence the miracles and signs from Heaven that
were shown when King Oswald's bones were found, and translated into the church where they are now preserved. This was
done by the zealous care of Osthryth, queen of the Mercians,343 the daughter
of his brother Oswy, who reigned after him, as shall be said hereafter.

There is a famous monastery in the province of Lindsey, called Beardaneu,344 which that queen and her husband Ethelred greatly loved and venerated, conferring upon it many
honours. It was here that she was desirous to lay the revered bones of her uncle. When the wagon in which those bones
were carried arrived towards evening at the aforesaid monastery, they that were in it were unwilling to admit them,
because, though they knew him to be a holy man, yet, as he was a native of another province, and had obtained the
sovereignty over them, they retained their ancient aversion to him even after his death. Thus it came to pass that the
relics were left in the open air all that night, with only a large tent spread over the wagon which contained them. But
it was revealed by a sign from Heaven with how much reverence they ought to be received by all the faithful; for all
that night, a pillar of light, reaching from the wagon up to heaven, was visible in almost every part of the province
of Lindsey. Hereupon, in the morning, the brethren of that monastery who had refused it the day before, began
themselves earnestly to pray that those holy relics, beloved of God, might be laid among them. Accordingly, the bones,
being washed, were put into a shrine which they had made for that purpose, and placed in the
church, with due honour; and that there might be a perpetual memorial of the royal character of this holy man, they
hung up over the monument his banner of gold and purple. Then they poured out the water in which they had washed the
bones, in a corner of the cemetery.345 From that time, the very earth which
received that holy water, had the power of saving grace in casting out devils from the bodies of persons possessed.

Lastly, when the aforesaid queen afterwards abode some time in that monastery, there came to visit her a certain
venerable abbess, who is still living, called Ethelhild, the sister of the holy men, Ethelwin346 and Aldwin, the first of whom was bishop in the province of Lindsey, the other abbot of the
monastery of Peartaneu;347 not far from which was the monastery of
Ethelhild. When this lady was come, in a conversation between her and the queen, the discourse, among other things,
turning upon Oswald, she said, that she also had that night seen the light over his relics reaching up to heaven. The
queen thereupon added, that the very dust of the pavement on which the water that washed the bones had been poured out,
had already healed many sick persons. The abbess thereupon desired that some of that health-bringing dust might be
given her, and, receiving it, she tied it up in a cloth, and, putting it into a casket, returned home. Some time after,
when she was in her monastery, there came to it a guest, who was wont often in the night to be on a sudden grievously
tormented with an unclean spirit; he being hospitably entertained, when he had gone to bed after supper, was suddenly
seized by the Devil, and began to cry out, to gnash his teeth, to foam at the mouth, and to writhe and distort his
limbs. None being able to hold or bind him, the servant ran, and knocking at the door, told
the abbess. She, opening the monastery door, went out herself with one of the nuns to the men's apartment, and calling
a priest, desired that he would go with her to the sufferer. Being come thither, and seeing many present, who had not
been able, by their efforts, to hold the tormented person and restrain his convulsive movements, the priest used
exorcisms, and did all that he could to assuage the madness of the unfortunate man, but, though he took much pains, he
could not prevail. When no hope appeared of easing him in his ravings, the abbess bethought herself of the dust, and
immediately bade her handmaiden go and fetch her the casket in which it was. As soon as she came with it, as she had
been bidden, and was entering the hall of the house, in the inner part whereof the possessed person was writhing in
torment, he suddenly became silent, and laid down his head, as if he had been falling asleep, stretching out all his
limbs to rest. “Silence fell upon all and intent they gazed,”348 anxiously waiting to see the end of the matter. And after about the space of an hour the man
that had been tormented sat up, and fetching a deep sigh, said, “Now I am whole, for I am restored to
my senses.” They earnestly inquired how that came to pass, and he answered, “As soon as that
maiden drew near the hall of this house, with the casket she brought, all the evil spirits that vexed me departed and
left me, and were no more to be seen.” Then the abbess gave him a little of that dust, and the priest having
prayed, he passed that night in great peace; nor was he, from that time forward, alarmed by night, or in any way
troubled by his old enemy.

343. Wife of Ethelred of Mercia (cf. IV,
21), murdered by her own people in 697 (V, 24).

344. Bardney, in Lincolnshire. Ethelred became first a monk, afterwards abbot of the
monastery.

345.“Sacrarium.” Probably here = the cemetery. But we find
it elsewhere in Bede for the sacristy, and it is also used of the sanctuary.

Chap. xii. How a little boy was cured of a fever at his tomb.

Some time after, there was a certain little boy in the said monastery, who had been long grievously
troubled with a fever; he was one day anxiously expecting the hour when his fit was to come
on, when one of the brothers, coming in to him, said, “Shall I tell you, my son, how you may be cured
of this sickness? Rise, enter the church, and go close to Oswald's tomb; sit down and stay there quiet and do not leave
it; do not come away, or stir from the place, till the time is past, when the fever leaves you: then I will go in and
fetch you away.” The boy did as he was advised, and the disease durst not assail him as he sat by the saint's
tomb; but fled in such fear that it did not dare to touch him, either the second or third day, or ever after. The
brother that came from thence, and told me this, added, that at the time when he was talking with me, the young man was
then still living in the monastery, on whom, when a boy, that miracle of healing had been wrought. Nor need we wonder
that the prayers of that king who is now reigning with our Lord, should be very efficacious with Him, since he, whilst
yet governing his temporal kingdom, was always wont to pray and labour more for that which is eternal. Nay, it is said,
that he often continued in prayer from the hour of morning thanksgiving349
till it was day; and that by reason of his constant custom of praying or giving thanks to God, he was wont always,
wherever he sat, to hold his hands on his knees with the palms turned upwards. It is also commonly affirmed and has
passed into a proverb, that he ended his life in prayer; for when he was beset with the weapons of his enemies, and
perceived that death was at hand, he prayed for the souls of his army. Whence it is proverbially said, “ ‘Lord have mercy on their souls,’ said Oswald, as he fell to the ground.”

Now his bones were translated to the monastery which we have mentioned, and buried therein: but the king who slew
him commanded his head, and hands, with the arms, to be cut off from the body, and set upon stakes. But his successor
in the throne, Oswy, coming thither the next year with his army, took them down, and buried
his head in the cemetery of the church of Lindisfarne,350 and the hands and
arms in his royal city.351

350. It was removed in 875, during the Danish invasions, in the coffin of St.
Cuthbert, and finally interred in the same tomb with the body of Cuthbert at Durham, where it was found in 1827. Hence
St. Cuthbert is often represented holding St. Oswald's head in his hands.

Chap. xiii. How a certain person in Ireland was restored, when at the point of death, by his relics.

Nor was the fame of the renowned Oswald confined to Britain, but, spreading rays of healing light
even beyond the sea, reached also to Germany and Ireland. For the most reverend prelate, Acca,352 is wont to relate, that when, in his journey to Rome,353 he and his bishop Wilfrid stayed some time with Wilbrord,354 the holy archbishop of the Frisians, he often heard him tell of the wonders which had been
wrought in that province at the relics of that most worshipful king. And he used to say that in Ireland, when, being
yet only a priest, he led the life of a stranger and pilgrim for love of the eternal country, the fame of that king's
sanctity was already spread far and near in that island also. One of the miracles, among the rest, which he related, we
have thought fit to insert in this our history.

“At the time,” said he, “of the plague which made such widespread havoc in
Britain and Ireland, among others, a certain scholar of the Scottish race was smitten with the disease, a man learned
in the study of letters, but in no way careful or studious of his eternal salvation; who, seeing his death near at
hand, began to fear and tremble lest, as soon as he was dead, he should be hurried away to the prison-house of Hell for
his sins. He called me, for I was near, and trembling and sighing in his weakness, with a lamentable voice made his
complaint to me, after this manner: ‘You see that my bodily distress increases, and that I am now
reduced to the point of death. Nor do I question but that after the death of my body, I shall be immediately snatched
away to the everlasting death of my soul, and cast into the torments of hell, since for a long time, amidst all my
reading of divine books, I have suffered myself to be ensnared by sin, instead of keeping the commandments of God. But
it is my resolve, if the Divine Mercy shall grant me a new term of life, to correct my sinful habits, and wholly to
devote anew my mind and life to obedience to the Divine will. But I know that I have no merits of my own whereby to
obtain a prolongation of life, nor can I hope to have it, unless it shall please God to forgive me, wretched and
unworthy of pardon as I am, through the help of those who have faithfully served him. We have heard, and the report is
widespread, that there was in your nation a king, of wonderful sanctity, called Oswald, the excellency of whose faith
and virtue has been made famous even after his death by the working of many miracles. I beseech you, if you have any
relics of his in your keeping, that you will bring them to me; if haply the Lord shall be pleased, through his merits,
to have mercy on me.’ I answered, ‘I have indeed a part of the stake on which his head was set
up by the pagans, when he was killed, and if you believe with steadfast heart, the Divine mercy may, through the merits
of so great a man, both grant you a longer term of life here, and render you worthy to be admitted into eternal
life.’ He answered immediately that he had entire faith therein. Then I blessed some
water, and put into it a splinter of the aforesaid oak, and gave it to the sick man to drink. He presently found ease,
and, recovering of his sickness, lived a long time after; and, being entirely converted to God in heart and deed,
wherever he went, he spoke of the goodness of his merciful Creator, and the honour of His faithful servant.”

352. Bishop of Hexham, 709-731: v.V, 20 (cf. also IV, 14; V, 19). He was a much loved friend of Bede, many of whose works were undertaken at his
instigation. He was devotedly attached to Wilfrid, whom he succeeded at Hexham. The “Continuation” says that he was expelled from his see in 731, and
he probably never regained it.

353. Cf. V. 19, p. 353. This was
probably Wilfrid's third journey to Rome, undertaken in 703-704, for, at the time of his earlier journey (in 678), when
he spent the winter in Frisland, Wilbrord was not yet there.

354. The great missionary archbishop of the Frisians. He was trained as a boy in
Wilfrid's abbey at Ripon, studied some time in Ireland, and with eleven companions undertook in 690 the mission to
Frisland planned by Egbert: v. V, 10, 11. (For Egbert, v. c. 4, p. 143, and note.)

Chap. xiv. How on the death of Paulinus, Ithamar was made bishop of Rochester in his stead; and of the wonderful
humility of King Oswin, who was cruelly slain by Oswy. [644-651 a.d.]

Oswald being translated to the heavenly kingdom, his brother Oswy,355 a young man of about thirty years of age, succeeded him on the throne of his earthly kingdom,
and held it twenty-eight years with much trouble, being attacked by the pagan nation of the Mercians, that had slain
his brother, as also by his son Alchfrid,356 and by his nephew
Oidilwald,357 the son of his brother who reigned before him. In his second
year, that is, in the year of our Lord 644, the most reverend Father Paulinus, formerly Bishop of York, but at that
time Bishop of the city of Rochester, departed to the Lord, on the 10th day of October, having held the office of a
bishop nineteen years, two months, and twenty-one days; and was buried in the sacristy of the blessed Apostle
Andrew,358 which King Ethelbert had built from the foundation, in the same
city of Rochester. In his place, Archbishop Honorius ordained Ithamar,359 of the Kentish nation, but not inferior to his predecessors in learning and
conduct of life.

Oswy, during the first part of his reign, had a partner in the royal dignity called Oswin, of the race of King
Edwin, and son to Osric360 of whom we have spoken above, a man of wonderful
piety and devotion, who governed the province of the Deiri seven years in very great prosperity, and was himself
beloved by all men. But Oswy, who governed all the other northern part of the nation beyond the Humber, that is, the
province of the Bernicians, could not live at peace with him; and at last, when the causes of their disagreement
increased, he murdered him most cruelly. For when each had raised an army against the other, Oswin perceived that he
could not maintain a war against his enemy who had more auxiliaries than himself, and he thought it better at that time
to lay aside all thoughts of engaging, and to reserve himself for better times. He therefore disbanded the army which
he had assembled, and ordered all his men to return to their own homes, from the place that is called
Wilfaraesdun,361 that is, Wilfar's Hill, which is about ten miles distant
from the village called Cataract, towards the north-west. He himself, with only one trusty thegn, whose name was
Tondhere, withdrew and lay concealed in the house of Hunwald, a noble,362
whom he imagined to be his most assured friend. But, alas! it was far otherwise; for Hunwald betrayed him, and Oswy, by
the hands of his reeve, Ethilwin, foully slew him and the thegn aforesaid. This happened on the 20th of August, in the
ninth year of his reign, at a place called Ingetlingum, where afterwards, to atone for this
crime, a monastery was built,363 wherein prayers should be daily offered up
to God for the redemption of the souls of both kings, to wit, of him that was murdered, and of him that commanded the
murder.

King Oswin was of a goodly countenance, and tall of stature, pleasant in discourse, and courteous in behaviour; and
bountiful to all, gentle and simple alike; so that he was beloved by all men for the royal dignity of his mind and
appearance and actions, and men of the highest rank came from almost all provinces to serve him. Among all the graces
of virtue and moderation by which he was distinguished and, if I may say so, blessed in a special manner, humility is
said to have been the greatest, which it will suffice to prove by one instance.

He had given a beautiful horse to Bishop Aidan, to use either in crossing rivers, or in performing a journey upon
any urgent necessity, though the Bishop was wont to travel ordinarily on foot. Some short time after, a poor man
meeting the Bishop, and asking alms, he immediately dismounted, and ordered the horse, with all his royal trappings, to
be given to the beggar; for he was very compassionate, a great friend to the poor, and, in a manner, the father of the
wretched. This being told to the king, when they were going in to dinner, he said to the Bishop, “What
did you mean, my lord Bishop, by giving the poor man that royal horse, which it was fitting that you should have for
your own use? Had not we many other horses of less value, or things of other sorts, which would have been good enough
to give to the poor, instead of giving that horse, which I had chosen and set apart for your own use?” Thereupon
the Bishop answered, “What do you say, O king? Is that son of a mare more dear to you than that son of
God?” Upon this they went in to dinner, and the Bishop sat in his place; but the king, who had come in from
hunting, stood warming himself, with his attendants, at the fire. Then, on a sudden, whilst he was warming himself,
calling to mind what the bishop had said to him, he ungirt his sword, and gave it to a
servant, and hastened to the Bishop and fell down at his feet, beseeching him to forgive him; “For from
this time forward,” said he, “I will never speak any more of this, nor will I judge of what or
how much of our money you shall give to the sons of God.” The bishop was much moved at this sight, and starting
up, raised him, saying that he was entirely reconciled to him, if he would but sit down to his meat, and lay aside all
sorrow. The king, at the bishop's command and request, was comforted, but the bishop, on the other hand, grew sad and
was moved even to tears. His priest then asking him, in the language of his country, which the king and his servants
did not understand, why he wept, “I know,” said he, “that the king will not live
long; for I never before saw a humble king; whence I perceive that he will soon be snatched out of this life, because
this nation is not worthy of such a ruler.” Not long after, the bishop's gloomy foreboding was fulfilled by the
king's sad death, as has been said above. But Bishop Aidan himself was also taken out of this world, not more than
twelve days after the death of the king he loved, on the 31st of August,364
to receive the eternal reward of his labours from the Lord.

355. The third of Ethelfrid's seven sons (v. Sax. Chron.) to
succeed to the sovereignty. With his brothers he had spent his youth in banishment among the Picts and Scots
(v.s. c. 1).

356. Cc. 21, 24, 25, 28. The pupil and
friend of Wilfrid. He was made sub-king of Deira in place of Ethelwald (v. next note). The date
and circumstances of his rebellion are not known. A cross at Bewcastle in Cumberland, erected in 670 or 671,
commemorates him and asks prayers for his soul.

360. The apostate king of Deira, Osric, son of Aelfric, was first cousin to Edwin
(cf. c. 1). Oswald united the two Northumbrian kingdoms, but at his death, Oswin,
son of Osric, succeeded to Deira. He was canonised, and his tragic death led him to be regarded as a martyr.

361. Not identified. The village (“a vico Cataractone”) is
probably the one called Cataracta in II, 14 (v.
note, ad loc.).

Chap. xv. How Bishop Aidan foretold to certain seamen that a storm would arise, and gave them some holy oil to calm
it. [Between 642 and 645 a.d.]

How great the merits of Aidan were, was made manifest by the Judge of the heart, with the testimony
of miracles, whereof it will suffice to mention three, that they may not be forgotten. A certain priest, whose name was
Utta,365 a man of great weight and sincerity, and on that account honoured
by all men, even the princes of the world, was sent to Kent, to bring thence, as wife for
King Oswy, Eanfled,366 the daughter of King Edwin, who had been carried
thither when her father was killed. Intending to go thither by land, but to return with the maiden by sea, he went to
Bishop Aidan, and entreated him to offer up his prayers to the Lord for him and his company, who were then to set out
on so long a journey. He, blessing them, and commending them to the Lord, at the same time gave them some holy oil,
saying, “I know that when you go on board ship, you will meet with a storm and contrary wind; but be
mindful to cast this oil I give you into the sea, and the wind will cease immediately; you will have pleasant calm
weather to attend you and send you home by the way that you desire.”

All these things fell out in order, even as the bishop had foretold. For first, the waves of the sea raged, and the
sailors endeavoured to ride it out at anchor, but all to no purpose; for the sea sweeping over the ship on all sides
and beginning to fill it with water, they all perceived that death was at hand and about to overtake them. The priest
at last, remembering the bishop's words, laid hold of the phial and cast some of the oil into the sea, which at once,
as had been foretold, ceased from its uproar. Thus it came to pass that the man of God, by the spirit of prophecy,
foretold the storm that was to come to pass, and by virtue of the same spirit, though absent in the body, calmed it
when it had arisen. The story of this miracle was not told me by a person of little credit, but by Cynimund, a most
faithful priest of our church,367 who declared that it was related to him by
Utta, the priest, in whose case and through whom the same was wrought.

Chap. xvi. How the same Aidan, by his prayers, saved the royal city when it was fired by the enemy [Before 651
a.d.]

Another notable miracle of the same father is related by many such as were likely to have knowledge
thereof; for during the time that he was bishop, the hostile army of the Mercians, under the command of Penda, cruelly
ravaged the country of the Northumbrians far and near, even to the royal city,368 which has its name from Bebba, formerly its queen. Not being able to take it by storm or by
siege, he endeavoured to burn it down; and having pulled down all the villages in the neighbourhood of the city, he
brought thither an immense quantity of beams, rafters, partitions, wattles and thatch, wherewith he encompassed the
place to a great height on the land side, and when he found the wind favourable, he set fire to it and attempted to
burn the town.

At that time, the most reverend Bishop Aidan was dwelling in the Isle of Farne,369 which is about two miles from the city; for thither he was wont often to retire to pray in
solitude and silence; and, indeed, this lonely dwelling of his is to this day shown in that island. When he saw the
flames of fire and the smoke carried by the wind rising above the city walls, he is said to have lifted up his eyes and
hands to heaven, and cried with tears, “Behold, Lord, how great evil is wrought by Penda!” These
words were hardly uttered, when the wind immediately veering from the city, drove back the flames upon those who had
kindled them, so that some being hurt, and all afraid, they forebore any further attempts against the city, which they
perceived to be protected by the hand of God.

369. The scene of St. Cuthbert's hermit life: v. IV, 27, 28, 29; V, 1. It is called the “House Island,” and is the largest of the Farne group of seventeen islands off the coast of Northumberland,
opposite Bamborough, famous in modern times for the rescue of a shipwrecked crew by Grace Darling.

Chap. xvii. How a prop of the church on which Bishop Aidan was leaning when he died, could not be consumed when the
rest of the Church was on fire; and concerning his inward life. [651 a.d.]

Aidan was in the king's township, not far from the city of which we have spoken above, at the time
when death caused him to quit the body, after he had been bishop sixteen370
years; for having a church and a chamber in that place, he was wont often to go and stay there, and to make excursions
from it to preach in the country round about, which he likewise did at other of the king's townships, having nothing of
his own besides his church and a few fields about it. When he was sick they set up a tent for him against the wall at
the west end of the church, and so it happened that he breathed his last, leaning against a buttress that was on the
outside of the church to strengthen the wall. He died in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, on the 31st of
August.371 His body was thence presently translated to the isle of
Lindisfarne, and buried in the cemetery of the brethren. Some time after, when a larger church was built there and
dedicated in honour of the blessed prince of the Apostles, his bones were translated thither, and laid on the right
side of the altar, with the respect due to so great a prelate.

Finan,372 who had likewise been sent thither from Hii, the island
monastery of the Scots, succeeded him, and continued no small time in the bishopric. It happened some years after, that
Penda, king of the Mercians, coming into these parts with a hostile army, destroyed all he could with fire and sword,
and the village where the bishop died, along with the church above mentioned, was burnt
down; but it fell out in a wonderful manner that the buttress against which he had been leaning when he died, could not
be consumed by the fire which devoured all about it. This miracle being noised abroad, the church was soon rebuilt in
the same place, and that same buttress was set up on the outside, as it had been before, to strengthen the wall. It
happened again, some time after, that the village and likewise the church were carelessly burned down the second time.
Then again, the fire could not touch the buttress; and, miraculously, though the fire broke through the very holes of
the nails wherewith it was fixed to the building, yet it could do no hurt to the buttress itself. When therefore the
church was built there the third time, they did not, as before, place that buttress on the outside as a support of the
building, but within the church, as a memorial of the miracle; where the people coming in might kneel, and implore the
Divine mercy. And it is well known that since then many have found grace and been healed in that same place, as also
that by means of splinters cut off from the buttress, and put into water, many more have obtained a remedy for their
own infirmities and those of their friends.373

I have written thus much concerning the character and works of the aforesaid Aidan, in no way commending or
approving his lack of wisdom with regard to the observance of Easter; nay, heartily detesting it, as I have most
manifestly proved in the book I have written, “De Temporibus”;374 but, like an impartial historian, unreservedly relating what was done by or through him, and
commending such things as are praiseworthy in his actions, and preserving the memory thereof for the benefit of the
readers; to wit, his love of peace and charity; of continence and humility; his mind superior to anger and avarice, and
despising pride and vainglory; his industry in keeping and teaching the Divine commandments,
his power of study and keeping vigil; his priestly authority in reproving the haughty and powerful, and at the same
time his tenderness in comforting the afflicted, and relieving or defending the poor. To be brief, so far as I have
learnt from those that knew him, he took care to neglect none of those things which he found in the Gospels and the
writings of Apostles and prophets, but to the utmost of his power endeavoured to fulfil them all in his deeds.

These things I greatly admire and love in the aforesaid bishop, because I do not doubt that they were pleasing to
God; but I do not approve or praise his observance of Easter at the wrong time, either through ignorance of the
canonical time appointed, or, if he knew it, being prevailed on by the authority of his nation not to adopt it.375 Yet this I approve in him, that in the celebration of his Easter, the object
which he had at heart and reverenced and preached was the same as ours, to wit, the redemption of mankind, through the
Passion, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven of the Man Christ Jesus, who is the mediator between God and man. And
therefore he always celebrated Easter, not as some falsely imagine, on the fourteenth of the moon, like the Jews, on
any day of the week, but on the Lord's day, from the fourteenth to the twentieth of the moon; and this he did from his
belief that the Resurrection of our Lord happened on the first day of the week, and for the hope of our resurrection,
which also he, with the holy Church, believed would truly happen on that same first day of the week, now called the
Lord's day.

370.v.l. seventeen. The MS. authority is about equal; but
cf. infra, the statement that he died in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, which seems to
be correct.

Chap. xviii. Of the life and death of the religious King Sigbert. [Circ. 631 a.d.]

At this time, the kingdom of the East Angles, after the death of Earpwald, the successor of Redwald,
was governed by his brother Sigbert,376 a good
and religious man, who some time before had been baptized in Gaul, whilst he lived in banishment, a fugitive from the
enmity of Redwald. When he returned home, as soon as he ascended the throne, being desirous to imitate the good
institutions which he had seen in Gaul, he founded a school wherein boys should be taught letters, and was assisted
therein by Bishop Felix, who came to him from Kent, and who furnished them with masters and teachers after the manner
of the people of Kent.377

This king became so great a lover of the heavenly kingdom, that at last, quitting the affairs of his kingdom, and
committing them to his kinsman Ecgric, who before had a share in that kingdom, he entered a monastery, which he had
built for himself, and having received the tonsure, applied himself rather to do battle for a heavenly throne. A long
time after this, it happened that the nation of the Mercians, under King Penda, made war on the East Angles; who
finding themselves no match for their enemy, entreated Sigbert to go with them to battle, to encourage the soldiers. He
was unwilling and refused, upon which they drew him against his will out of the monastery, and carried him to the army,
hoping that the soldiers would be less afraid and less disposed to flee in the presence of one who had formerly been an
active and distinguished commander. But he, still mindful of his profession, surrounded, as he was, by a royal army,
would carry nothing in his hand but a wand, and was killed with King Ecgric; and the pagans pressing on, all their army
was either slaughtered or dispersed.

They were succeeded in the kingdom by Anna,378 the son of Eni, of the
blood royal, a good man, and the father of good children, of whom, in the proper place, we
shall speak hereafter. He also was afterwards slain like his predecessors by the same pagan chief of the Mercians.

377. Cf. ib. The school was probably in the episcopal city
of Dunwich, though it has been maintained that it was the origin of Cambridge University. For this there seems to be no
authority except a seventeenth century addition to this passage in a twelfth or thirteenth century MS: “Grantebrig schola a Sigberto Rege.”

Chap. xix. How Fursa built a monastery among the East Angles, and of his visions and sanctity, to which, his flesh
remaining uncorrupted after death bore testimony. [Circ.633a.d.]

Whilst Sigbert still governed the kingdom, there came out of Ireland a holy man called
Fursa,379 renowned both for his words and actions, and remarkable for
singular virtues, being desirous to live as a stranger and pilgrim for the Lord's sake, wherever an opportunity should
offer. On coming into the province of the East Angles, he was honourably received by the aforesaid king, and performing
his wonted task of preaching the Gospel, by the example of his virtue and the influence of his words, converted many
unbelievers to Christ, and confirmed in the faith and love of Christ those that already believed.

Here he fell into some infirmity of body, and was thought worthy to see a vision of angels; in which he was
admonished diligently to persevere in the ministry of the Word which he had undertaken, and indefatigably to apply
himself to his usual watching and prayers; inasmuch as his end was certain, but the hour thereof uncertain, according
to the saying of our Lord, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.”380 Being confirmed by this vision, he set himself with all speed to build a
monastery on the ground which had been given him by King Sigbert, and to establish a rule of
life therein. This monastery was pleasantly situated in the woods, near the sea; it was built within the area of a
fort, which in the English language is called Cnobheresburg, that is, Cnobhere's Town;381 afterwards, Anna, king of that province, and certain of the nobles, embellished it with more
stately buildings and with gifts.

This man was of noble Scottish382 blood, but much more noble in mind than
in birth. From his boyish years, he had earnestly applied himself to reading sacred books and observing monastic
discipline, and, as is most fitting for holy men, he carefully practised all that he learned to be right.

Now, in course of time he himself built a monastery,383 wherein he might
with more freedom devote himself to his heavenly studies. There, falling sick, as the book concerning his life clearly
informs us, he fell into a trance, and quitting his body from the evening till cockcrow, he was accounted worthy to
behold the sight of the choirs of angels, and to hear their glad songs of praise. He was wont to declare, that among
other things he distinctly heard this refrain: “The saints shall go from strength to
strength.”384 And again, “The God of gods shall be
seen in Sion.”385 Being restored to his body, and again taken from it
three days after, he not only saw the greater joys of the blessed, but also fierce conflicts of evil spirits, who by
frequent accusations wickedly endeavoured to obstruct his journey to heaven; but the angels protected him, and all
their endeavours were in vain. Concerning all these matters, if any one desires to be more fully informed, to wit, with
what subtlety of deceit the devils recounted both his actions and idle words, and even his thoughts, as if they had
been written down in a book; and what joyous or grievous tidings he learned from the holy
angels and just men who appeared to him among the angels; let him read the little book of his life which I have
mentioned, and I doubt not that he will thereby reap much spiritual profit.

But there is one thing among the rest, which we have thought it may be beneficial to many to insert in this history.
When he had been taken up on high, he was bidden by the angels that conducted him to look back upon the world. Upon
which, casting his eyes downward, he saw, as it were, a dark valley in the depths underneath him. He also saw four
fires in the air, not far distant from each other. Then asking the angels, what fires those were, he was told, they
were the fires which would kindle and consume the world. One of them was of falsehood, when we do not fulfil that which
we promised in Baptism, to renounce the Devil and all his works. The next was of covetousness, when we prefer the
riches of the world to the love of heavenly things. The third was of discord, when we do not fear to offend our
neighbour even in needless things. The fourth was of ruthlessness when we think it a light thing to rob and to defraud
the weak. These fires, increasing by degrees, extended so as to meet one another, and united in one immense flame. When
it drew near, fearing for himself, he said to the angel, “Lord, behold the fire draws near to
me.” The angel answered, “That which you did not kindle will not burn you; for though this
appears to be a terrible and great pyre, yet it tries every man according to the merits of his works; for every man's
concupiscence shall burn in this fire; for as a man burns in the body through unlawful pleasure, so, when set free from
the body, he shall burn by the punishment which he has deserved.”

Then he saw one of the three angels, who had been his guides throughout both visions, go before and divide the
flaming fires, whilst the other two, flying about on both sides, defended him from the danger of the fire. He also saw
devils flying through the fire, raising the flames of war against the just. Then followed
accusations of the envious spirits against himself, the defence of the good spirits, and a fuller vision of the
heavenly hosts; as also of holy men of his own nation, who, as he had learnt, had worthily held the office of
priesthood in old times, and who were known to fame; from whom he heard many things very salutary to himself, and to
all others that would listen to them. When they had ended their discourse, and returned to Heaven with the angelic
spirits, there remained with the blessed Fursa, the three angels of whom we have spoken before, and who were to bring
him back to the body. And when they approached the aforesaid great fire, the angel divided the flame, as he had done
before; but when the man of God came to the passage so opened amidst the flames, the unclean spirits, laying hold of
one of those whom they were burning in the fire, cast him against him, and, touching his shoulder and jaw, scorched
them. He knew the man, and called to mind that he had received his garment when he died. The holy angel, immediately
laying hold of the man, threw him back into the fire, and the malignant enemy said, “Do not reject him
whom you before received; for as you received the goods of the sinner, so you ought to share in his punishment.”
But the angel withstood him, saying, “He did not receive them through avarice, but in order to save his
soul.” The fire ceased, and the angel, turning to him, said, “That which you kindled burned you;
for if you had not received the money of this man that died in his sins, his punishment would not burn you.” And
he went on to speak with wholesome counsel of what ought to be done for the salvation of such as repented in the hour
of death.

Being afterwards restored to the body, throughout the whole course of his life he bore the mark of the fire which he
had felt in the spirit, visible to all men on his shoulder and jaw; and the flesh openly showed, in a wonderful manner,
what the spirit had suffered in secret. He always took care, as he had done before, to teach all men the practice of
virtue, as well by his example, as by preaching. But as for the story of his visions, he
would only relate them to those who, from desire of repentance, questioned him about them. An aged brother of our
monastery is still living, who is wont to relate that a very truthful and religious man told him, that he had seen
Fursa himself in the province of the East Angles, and heard those visions from his lips; adding, that though it was in
severe winter weather and a hard frost, and the man was sitting in a thin garment when he told the story, yet he
sweated as if it had been in the heat of mid-summer, by reason of the great terror or joy of which he spoke.

To return to what we were saying before, when, after preaching the Word of God many years in Scotland,386 he could not well endure the disturbance of the crowds that resorted to him,
leaving all that he looked upon as his own, he departed from his native island, and came with a few brothers through
the Britons into the province of the English, and preaching the Word there, as has been said, built a famous
monastery.387 When this was duly carried out, he became desirous to rid
himself of all business of this world, and even of the monastery itself, and forthwith left the care of it and of its
souls, to his brother Fullan, and the priests Gobban and Dicull,388 and
being himself free from all worldly affairs, resolved to end his life as a hermit. He had another brother called Ultan,
who, after a long monastic probation, had also adopted the life of an anchorite. So, seeking him out alone, he lived a
whole year with him in self-denial and prayer, and laboured daily with his hands.

Afterwards seeing the province thrown into confusion by the irruptions of the pagans,389 and foreseeing that the monasteries would also be in danger, he left
all things in order, and sailed over into Gaul, and being there honourably entertained by Clovis, king of the
Franks,390 or by the patrician Ercinwald, he built a monastery in the place
called Latineacum,391 and falling sick not long after, departed this life.
The same Ercinwald, the patrician, took his body, and kept it in the porch of a church he was building in his town of
Perrona,392 till the church itself should be dedicated. This happened
twenty-seven days after, and the body being taken from the porch, to be re-buried near the altar, was found as whole as
if he had died that very hour. And again, four years after, when a more beautiful shrine had been built to receive his
body to the east of the altar, it was still found without taint of corruption, and was translated thither with due
honour; where it is well known that his merits, through the divine operation, have been declared by many miracles. We
have briefly touched upon these matters as well as the incorruption of his body, that the lofty nature of the man may
be better known to our readers. All which, as also concerning the comrades of his warfare, whosoever will read it, will
find more fully described in the book of his life.

379. For a full account of St. Fursa and his brothers, and other companions
mentioned in this chapter, v. Miss Margaret Stokes's “Three months in the
Forests of France, a pilgrimage in search of vestiges of the Irish Saints in France.” Bede's narrative is taken
from an extant ancient Latin life of St. Fursa (or Fursey), the “libellus de vita ejus
conscriptus” to which he refers several times (v. infra).

388. Fullan, or Foillan, was apparently a bishop (the others are called “presbyteri”). He and Ultan after Fursa's death (circ. 650) went to South Brabant.
Ultan founded a monastery at Fosse in the diocese of Liège (then of Maestricht), and Fullan laboured in conjunction
with St. Gertrude in the double monastery of Nivelles. Ultan became abbot, first of Fosse and later of Péronne. The
name Gobban occurs frequently in Irish Church History, Dicull occasionally. There is a Dicull mentioned in IV, 13.

392. Péronne on the Somme. The monastery founded there after his death was called
“Perrona Scotorum” from the number of Irish who resorted to it.

Chap. xx. How, when Honorius died, Deusdedit became Archbishop of Canterbury; and of those who were at that time
bishops of the East Angles, and of the church of Rochester. [653 a.d.]

In the meantime, Felix, bishop of the East Angles, dying, when he had held that see seventeen
years,393 Honorius ordained Thomas his deacon, of
the province of the Gyrwas,394 in his place; and he being taken from this
life when he had been bishop five years, Bertgils, surnamed Boniface,395 of
the province of Kent, was appointed in his stead. Honorius396 himself also,
having run his course, departed this life in the year of our Lord 653, on the 30th of September; and when the see had
been vacant a year and six months, Deusdedit397 of the nation of the West
Saxons, was chosen the sixth Archbishop of Canterbury. To ordain him, Ithamar,398 bishop of Rochester, came thither. His ordination was on the 26th of March, and he ruled the
church nine years, four months, and two days; and when Ithamar died, he consecrated in his place Damian,399 who was of the race of the South Saxons.

393.Circ. 647. The rapid increase in the number of native
bishops may be seen from this chapter. The only one before Thomas was Ithamar (cf. c. 14, p. 164).

394. The Fen country. The province included part of the counties of Lincoln,
Northampton, Huntingdon, and Cambridge.

395. Such changes of name were frequent: cf. Benedict for Biscop (IV, 18), Boniface for Winfrid (v.“Continuation”), Clement for Wilbrord (V, 11), and cf. infra, “Deusdedit.”

397. The first archbishop of English birth. He died in 664 (v.IV, 1). His original name is said to have been Frithonas;
Deusdedit is the Latin form of Theodore. There was a Pope of the same name, 615-618 (v.II, 7). Similar names were common in the African Church, e.g., “Adeodatus,”“Habetdeus,”“Quodvultdeus,”“Deogratias.”

399. Cf. IV, 2. It has been supposed
that he died of the plague of 664. After his death the see was vacant for several years. It is remarkable that he came
of a race which had not yet become Christian. The South Saxons continued to be pagan till Wilfrid evangelized them,
681-686 (IV, 13).

Chap. xxi. How the province of the Midland Angles became Christian under King Peada. [653 a.d.]

At this time, the Middle Angles, that is, the Angles of the Midland country,400 under their Prince Peada, the son of King Penda, received the faith and mysteries of the truth.
Being an excellent youth, and most worthy of the name and office of a king, he was by his
father elevated to the throne of that nation, and came to Oswy, king of the Northumbrians, requesting to have his
daughter Alchfled401 given him to wife; but he could not obtain his desire
unless he would receive the faith of Christ, and be baptized, with the nation which he governed. When he heard the
preaching of the truth, the promise of the heavenly kingdom, and the hope of resurrection and future immortality, he
declared that he would willingly become a Christian, even though he should not obtain the maiden; being chiefly
prevailed on to receive the faith by King Oswy's son Alchfrid,402 who was
his brother-in-law and friend, for he had married his sister Cyneburg,403
the daughter of King Penda.

Accordingly he was baptized by Bishop Finan, with all his nobles and thegns,404 and their servants, that came along with him, at a noted township, belonging to the king, called
At the Wall.405 And having received four priests, who by reason of their
learning and good life were deemed proper to instruct and baptize his nation, he returned home with much joy. These
priests were Cedd and Adda, and Betti and Diuma;406 the last of whom was by
nation a Scot, the others English. Adda was brother to Utta, whom we have mentioned before,407 a renowned priest, and abbot of the monastery which is called At the Goat's Head.408 The aforesaid priests, arriving in the province with
the prince, preached the Word, and were heard willingly; and many, as well of the nobility as the common sort,
renouncing the abominations of idolatry, were daily washed in the fountain of the faith.

Nor did King Penda forbid the preaching of the Word even among his people, the Mercians, if any were willing to hear
it; but, on the contrary, he hated and despised those whom he perceived to be without the works of faith, when they had
once received the faith of Christ, saying, that they were contemptible and wretched who scorned to obey their God, in
whom they believed. These things were set on foot two years before the death of King Penda.

But when he was slain, and the most Christian king, Oswy, succeeded him in the throne, as we shall hereafter relate,
Diuma,409 one of the aforesaid four priests, was made bishop of the Midland
Angles, as also of the Mercians, being ordained by Bishop Finan; for the scarcity of priests made it necessary that one
prelate should be set over two nations. Having in a short time gained many people to the Lord, he died among the
Midland Angles, in the country called Infeppingum;410 and Ceollach, also of
the Scottish nation, succeeded him in the bishopric. But he, not long after, left his bishopric, and returned to the
island of Hii,411 which, among the Scots, was the chief and head of many
monasteries. His successor in the bishopric was Trumhere,412 a godly man,
and trained in the monastic life, an Englishman, but ordained bishop by the Scots. This happened in the days of King
Wulfhere, of whom we shall speak hereafter.

400. For their origin, v.I, 15. Their country, which was subject to Mercia, was the present Leicestershire. They are
probably to be identified with the Southern Mercians; v. c. 24, where we find Peada confirmed by Oswy in the government of that people.

403. After Alchfrid's death, she took the veil and ruled the monastery of Caistor (?
Cyneburgacaster) in Northamptonshire. She was one of the five children of the heathen Penda, who were canonized as
saints.

Chap. xxii. How under King Sigbert, through the preaching of Cedd, the East Saxons again received the faith, which
they had before cast off. [653 a.d.]

At that time, also, the East Saxons, at the instance of King Oswy, again received the faith, which
they had formerly cast off when they expelled Mellitus, their bishop.413 For
Sigbert,414 who reigned next to Sigbert surnamed The Little, was then king
of that nation, and a friend to King Oswy, who, when Sigbert came to the province of the Northumbrians to visit him, as
he often did, used to endeavour to convince him that those could not be gods that had been made by the hands of men;
that a stock or a stone could not be proper matter to form a god, the residue whereof was either burned in the fire, or
framed into any vessels for the use of men, or else was cast out as refuse, trampled on and turned into dust. That God
is rather to be understood as incomprehensible in majesty and invisible to human eyes, almighty, eternal, the Creator
of heaven and earth and of mankind; Who governs and will judge the world in righteousness, Whose eternal abode must be
believed to be in Heaven, and not in base and perishable metal; and that it ought in reason to be concluded, that all
those who learn and do the will of Him by Whom they were created, will receive from Him eternal rewards. King Oswy
having often, with friendly counsel, like a brother, said this and much more to the like effect to King Sigbert, at
length, aided by the consent of his friends, he believed, and after he had consulted with those about him, and exhorted
them, when they all agreed and assented to the faith, he was baptized with them by Bishop Finan, in the king's township
above spoken of, which is called At the Wall,415 because it is close by the
wall which the Romans formerly drew across the island of Britain, at the distance of twelve
miles from the eastern sea.

King Sigbert, having now become a citizen of the eternal kingdom, returned to the seat of his temporal kingdom,
requesting of King Oswy that he would give him some teachers, to convert his nation to the faith of Christ, and cleanse
them in the fountain of salvation. Wherefore Oswy, sending into the province of the Midland Angles, summoned the man of
God, Cedd,416 and, giving him another priest for his companion, sent them to
preach the Word to the East Saxons. When these two, travelling to all parts of that country, had gathered a numerous
Church to the Lord, it happened once that Cedd returned home, and came to the church of Lindisfarne to confer with
Bishop Finan; who, finding that the work of the Gospel had prospered in his hands, made him bishop of the nation of the
East Saxons, calling to him two other bishops417 to assist at the
ordination. Cedd, having received the episcopal dignity, returned to his province, and pursuing the work he had begun
with more ample authority, built churches in divers places, and ordained priests and deacons to assist him in the Word
of faith, and the ministry of Baptism,418 especially in the city which, in
the language of the Saxons, is called Ythancaestir,419 as also in that which
is named Tilaburg.420 The first of these places is on the bank of the Pant,
the other on the bank of the Thames. In these, gathering a flock of Christ's servants, he taught them to observe the
discipline of a rule of life, as far as those rude people were then capable of receiving it.

Whilst the teaching of the everlasting life was thus, for no small time, making daily increase in that province to
the joy of the king and of all the people, it happened that the king, at the instigation of the enemy of all good men,
was murdered by his own kindred. They were two brothers who did this wicked deed; and being asked what had moved them
to it, they had nothing else to answer, but that they had been incensed against the king, and hated him, because he was
too apt to spare his enemies, and calmly forgave the wrongs they had done him, upon their entreaty. Such was the crime
for which the king was killed, because he observed the precepts of the Gospel with a devout heart; but in this innocent
death his real offence was also punished, according to the prediction of the man of God. For one of those
nobles421 that murdered him was unlawfully married, and when the bishop was
not able to prevent or correct the sin, he excommunicated him, and commanded all that would give ear to him not to
enter this man's house, nor to eat of his meat. But the king made light of this command, and being invited by the
noble, went to a banquet at his house. As he was going thence, the bishop met him. The king, beholding him, immediately
dismounted from his horse, trembling, and fell down at his feet, begging pardon for his offence; for the bishop, who
was likewise on horseback, had also alighted. Being much incensed, he touched the prostrate king with the rod he held
in his hand, and spoke thus with the authority of his office: “I tell thee, forasmuch as thou wouldest
not refrain from the house of that sinful and condemned man, thou shalt die in that very house.” Yet it is to be
believed, that such a death of a religious man not only blotted out his offence, but even added to his merit; because
it happened on account of his piety and his observance of the commands of Christ.

Sigbert was succeeded in the kingdom by Suidhelm,422 the son of Sexbald,
who was baptized by the same Cedd, in the province of the East Angles, in the royal
township, called Rendlaesham,423 that is, Rendil's Dwelling; and
Ethelwald,424 king of the East Angles, brother to Anna, king of the same
people, received him as he came forth from the holy font.

414. Sometimes surnamed the “Good.” (He must not be confused
with Sigbert, King of the East Angles, II, 15, and III, 18, 19.) Sigbert the Little was the successor of the three
young kings who expelled Mellitus (II, 5).

424. Distinguish from Ethelwald, or Oidilwald, sub-King of Deira (v.s. c. 14, and infra cc. 23, 24). Ethelwald, King of the East Angles, succeeded his brother,
Ethelhere, who was the successor of Anna (cf. supra cc. 7,
18, 19), and was killed in the battle of the
Winwaed (v. infra c. 24).

Chap. xxiii. How Bishop Cedd, having a place for building a monastery given him by King Ethelwald, consecrated it
to the Lord with prayer and fasting; and concerning his death. [659-664 a.d.]

The same man of God, whilst he was bishop among the East Saxons, was also wont oftentimes to visit
his own province, Northumbria, for the purpose of exhortation. Oidilwald,425
the son of King Oswald, who reigned among the Deiri, finding him a holy, wise, and good man, desired him to accept some
land whereon to build a monastery, to which the king himself might frequently resort, to pray to the Lord and hear the
Word, and where he might be buried when he died; for he believed faithfully that he should receive much benefit from
the daily prayers of those who were to serve the Lord in that place. The king had before with him a brother of the same
bishop, called Caelin, a man no less devoted to God, who, being a priest, was wont to administer to him and his house
the Word and the Sacraments of the faith; by whose means he chiefly came to know and love the bishop. So then,
complying with the king's desires, the Bishop chose himself a place whereon to build a monastery among steep and
distant mountains, which looked more like lurking-places for robbers and dens of wild beasts, than dwellings of men; to
the end that, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, “In the habitation of
dragons, where each lay, might be grass with reeds and rushes;”426
that is, that the fruits of good works should spring up, where before beasts were wont to dwell, or men to live after
the manner of beasts.

But the man of God, desiring first to cleanse the place which he had received for the monastery from stain of former
crimes, by prayer and fasting, and so to lay the foundations there, requested of the king that he would give him
opportunity and leave to abide there for prayer all the time of Lent, which was at hand. All which days, except
Sundays, he prolonged his fast till the evening, according to custom, and then took no other sustenance than a small
piece of bread, one hen's egg, and a little milk and water. This, he said, was the custom of those of whom he had
learned the rule of regular discipline, first to consecrate to the Lord, by prayer and fasting, the places which they
had newly received for building a monastery or a church. When there were ten days of Lent still remaining, there came a
messenger to call him to the king; and he, that the holy work might not be intermitted, on account of the king's
affairs, entreated his priest, Cynibill, who was also his own brother, to complete his pious undertaking. Cynibill
readily consented, and when the duty of fasting and prayer was over, he there built the monastery, which is now called
Laestingaeu,427 and established therein religious customs according to the
use of Lindisfarne, where he had been trained.

When Cedd had for many years held the office of bishop in the aforesaid province, and also taken charge of this
monastery, over which he placed provosts,428 it happened that he came
thither at a time when there was plague, and fell sick and died. He was first buried without
the walls; but in the process of time a church was built of stone in the monastery, in honour of the Blessed Mother of
God, and his body was laid in it, on the right side of the altar.

The bishop left the monastery to be governed after him by his brother Ceadda,429 who was afterwards made bishop, as shall be told hereafter. For, as it rarely happens, the four
brothers we have mentioned, Cedd and Cynibill, and Caelin and Ceadda, were all celebrated priests of the Lord, and two
of them also came to be bishops. When the brethren who were in his monastery, in the province of the East
Saxons,430 heard that the bishop was dead and buried in the province of the
Northumbrians, about thirty men of that monastery came thither, being desirous either to live near the body of their
father, if it should please God, or to die and be buried there. Being gladly received by their brethren and fellow
soldiers in Christ, all of them died there struck down by the aforesaid pestilence, except one little boy, who is known
to have been saved from death by the prayers of his spiritual father. For being alive long after, and giving himself to
the reading of Scripture, he was told that he had not been regenerated by the water of Baptism, and being then cleansed
in the laver of salvation, he was afterwards promoted to the order of priesthood, and was of service to many in the
church. I do not doubt that he was delivered at the point of death, as I have said, by the intercession of his father,
to whose body he had come for love of him, that so he might himself avoid eternal death, and by teaching, offer the
ministry of life and salvation to others of the brethren.

Chap. xxiv. How when King Penda was slain, the province of the Mercians received the faith of Christ, and Oswy gave
possessions and territories to God, for building monasteries, as a thank offering for the victory obtained. [655
a.d.]

At this time, King Oswy was exposed to the cruel and intolerable invasions of Penda, king of the
Mercians, whom we have so often mentioned, and who had slain his brother;431
at length, compelled by his necessity, he promised to give him countless gifts and royal marks of honour greater than
can be believed, to purchase peace; provided that he would return home, and cease to waste and utterly destroy the
provinces of his kingdom. The pagan king refused to grant his request, for he had resolved to blot out and extirpate
all his nation, from the highest to the lowest; whereupon King Oswy had recourse to the protection of the Divine pity
for deliverance from his barbarous and pitiless foe, and binding himself by a vow, said, “If the pagan
will not accept our gifts, let us offer them to Him that will, the Lord our God.” He then vowed, that if he
should win the victory, he would dedicate his daughter to the Lord in holy virginity, and give twelve pieces of land
whereon to build monasteries. After this he gave battle with a very small army: indeed, it is reported that the pagans
had thirty times the number of men; for they had thirty legions, drawn up under most noted commanders.432 King Oswy and his son Alchfrid met them with a very small army, as has been
said, but trusting in Christ as their Leader; his other son, Egfrid,433 was
then kept as a hostage at the court of Queen Cynwise,434 in the province of the Mercians. King Oswald's son Oidilwald,435 who ought to have supported them, was on the enemy's side, and led them on to fight against his
country and his uncle; though, during the battle, he withdrew, and awaited the event in a place of safety. The
engagement began, the pagans were put to flight or killed, the thirty royal commanders, who had come to Penda's
assistance, were almost all of them slain; among whom was Ethelhere,436
brother and successor to Anna, king of the East Angles. He had been the occasion of the war, and was now killed, having
lost his army and auxiliaries. The battle was fought near the river Winwaed,437 which then, owing to the great rains, was in flood, and had overflowed its banks, so that many
more were drowned in the flight than destroyed in battle by the sword.

Then King Oswy, according to the vow he had made to the Lord, returned thanks to God for the victory granted him,
and gave his daughter Elfled,438 who was scarce a year old, to be
consecrated to Him in perpetual virginity; bestowing also twelve small estates of land, wherein the practice of earthly warfare should cease, and place and means should be afforded to devout and
zealous monks to wage spiritual warfare, and pray for the eternal peace of his nation. Of these estates six were in the
province of the Deiri, and the other six in that of the Bernicians. Each of the estates contained ten families, that
is, a hundred and twenty in all. The aforesaid daughter of King Oswy, who was to be dedicated to God, entered the
monastery called Heruteu,439 or, “The Island of the
Hart,” at that time ruled by the Abbess Hilda,440 who, two years
after, having acquired an estate of ten families, at the place called Streanaeshalch,441 built a monastery there, in which the aforesaid king's daughter was first trained in the
monastic life and afterwards became abbess; till, at the age of fifty-nine, the blessed virgin departed to be united to
her Heavenly Bridegroom. In this monastery, she and her father, Oswy, her mother, Eanfled, her mother's father,
Edwin,442 and many other noble persons, are buried in the church of the holy
Apostle Peter. King Oswy concluded this war in the district of Loidis, in the thirteenth year of his reign, on the 15th
of November,443 to the great benefit of both nations; for he delivered his
own people from the hostile depredations of the pagans, and, having made an end of their heathen chief, converted the
Mercians and the adjacent provinces to the grace of the Christian faith.

Diuma was made the first bishop of the Mercians, as also of Lindsey and the Midland Angles, as has been said
above,444 and he died and was buried among the
Midland Angles. The second was Ceollach,445 who, giving up his episcopal
office before his death, returned into Scotland. Both these bishops belonged to the nation of the Scots. The third was
Trumhere, an Englishman, but educated and ordained by the Scots. He was abbot of the monastery that is called
Ingetlingum,446 and is the place where King Oswin was killed, as has been
said above; for Queen Eanfled, his kinswoman, in expiation of his unjust death, begged of King Oswy that he would give
Trumhere, the aforesaid servant of God, a place there to build a monastery, because he also was kinsman to the
slaughtered king; in which monastery continual prayers should be offered up for the eternal welfare of the kings, both
of him that was murdered, and of him that commanded the murder. The same King Oswy governed the Mercians, as also the
people of the other southern provinces, three years after he had slain King Penda; and he likewise subdued the greater
part of the Picts to the dominion of the English.

At this time he gave to the above-mentioned Peada, son to King Penda, because he was his kinsman, the kingdom of the
Southern Mercians,447 consisting, as is said, of 5,000 families, divided by
the river Trent from the Northern Mercians, whose land contains 7,000 families; but Peada was foully slain in the
following spring, by the treachery, as is said, of his wife,448 during the
very time of the Easter festival. Three years after the death of King Penda, the Mercian chiefs, Immin, and Eafa, and
Eadbert, rebelled against King Oswy, setting up for their king, Wulfhere,449
son to the said Penda, a youth whom they had kept concealed; and expelling the ealdormen of
the foreign king, they bravely recovered at once their liberty and their lands; and being thus free, together with
their king, they rejoiced to serve Christ the true King, for the sake of an everlasting kingdom in heaven. This king
governed the Mercians seventeen years, and had for his first bishop Trumhere,450 above spoken of; the second was Jaruman;451 the third
Ceadda;452 the fourth Wynfrid.453
All these, succeeding each other in order under King Wulfhere, discharged episcopal duties to the Mercian nation.

435. Cc. 14 and 23. The reason for his conduct is not explained. Probably he had hoped to establish his claims on
Northumbria through Penda's assistance, but shrank from actually fighting against his country.

436. Cf. c. 22, ad fin.,
note. How he gave occasion for the war is not known.

437. The river has not been identified, and there is great uncertainty even with
regard to the district. Below, Bede says that Oswy concluded the war in the district of “Loidis,” by which he must mean Leeds, as in II, 14, and most
commentators adopt this view. In this case, the river may be the Aire, or more probably the Went, a tributary of the
Don. Others believe the district to be the Lothians, following the account in Nennius, who describes Oswy as taking
refuge before the battle in a city called Iudeu, supposed to be either Edinburgh or Carriden (cf. I, 12, note), and the river has been supposed to be the Avon in Linlithgow.

438. She is mentioned as joint-abbess with her mother, Eanfled, of the monastery of
Whitby (IV, 26). Eddius calls her “sapientissima
virgo,”“semper totius provinciae consolatrix optimaque consiliatrix.” Her influence
helped to restore Wilfrid to the bishopric. She was the friend of St. Cuthbert, who is said to have wrought a
miraculous cure on her behalf. It was to her that he prophesied the death of her brother Egfrid (IV, 26, p. 285, note).

444. Cf. c. 21, where, however, Lindsey is not
mentioned. For the successive conquests of Lindsey by Northumbria and Mercia, v. IV, 12, p.
243, note. Though it must have passed to Northumbria after Oswy's victory,
it was still apparently included in the Mercian diocese.

449. He has been already mentioned, cc. 7,
21. He was a vigorous ruler; he freed Mercia from Northumbria, reconquered Lindsey,
established his supremacy over the East Saxons (cf. c. 30), and curtailed the power
of Wessex. His attempt, however, to extend his power to the north of the Humber ended in 675 in his disastrous defeat
by Egfrid, King of Northumbria (IV, 12) and his death followed
immediately after. He was the first Christian king of all Mercia, and he was zealous in putting down idolatry (Florence
of Worcester).

453. IV, 3, 5, 6. He was deposed by Theodore for some act of
disobedience not known (IV, 6), and went to the Continent, where,
travelling in Neustria, he was mistaken for Wilfrid and cruelly ill-treated by the emissaries of Ebroin (v.V, 19, note), “errore bono unius syllabae
seducti,” as Eddius, the biographer of Wilfrid, remarks.

Chap. xxv. How the question arose about the due time of keeping Easter, with those that came out of
Scotland.454[664 a.d.]

In the meantime, Bishop Aidan being taken away from this life, Finan, who was ordained and sent by
the Scots, succeeded him in the bishopric, and built a church in the Isle of Lindisfarne, fit for the episcopal see;
nevertheless, after the manner of the Scots, he made it, not of stone, but entirely of hewn oak, and covered it with
reeds; and it was afterwards dedicated in honour of the blessed Peter the Apostle, by the most reverend Archbishop
Theodore. Eadbert,455 also bishop of that place, took off the thatch, and
caused it to be covered entirely, both roof and walls, with plates of lead.

At this time, a great and frequently debated question arose about the observance of Easter;456 those that came from Kent or Gaul affirming, that the Scots celebrated Easter Sunday contrary to
the custom of the universal Church. Among them was a most zealous defender of the true Easter, whose name was
Ronan,457 a Scot by nation, but instructed in the rule of ecclesiastical
truth in Gaul or Italy. Disputing with Finan, he convinced many, or at least induced them to make a more strict inquiry
after the truth; yet he could not prevail upon Finan, but, on the contrary, embittered him the more by reproof, and
made him a professed opponent of the truth, for he was of a violent temper. James,458 formerly the deacon of the venerable Archbishop Paulinus, as has been said above, observed the
true and Catholic Easter, with all those that he could instruct in the better way. Queen Eanfled and her followers also
observed it as she had seen it practised in Kent, having with her a Kentish priest who followed the Catholic
observance, whose name was Romanus. Thus it is said to have sometimes happened in those times that Easter was twice
celebrated in one year; and that when the king, having ended his fast, was keeping Easter, the queen and her followers
were still fasting, and celebrating Palm Sunday. Whilst Aidan lived, this difference about the observance of Easter was
patiently tolerated by all men, for they well knew, that though he could not keep Easter contrary to the custom of
those who had sent him, yet he industriously laboured to practise the works of faith, piety, and love, according to the
custom of all holy men; for which reason he was deservedly beloved by all, even by those who differed in opinion
concerning Easter, and was held in veneration, not only by less important persons, but even by the bishops, Honorius of
Canterbury, and Felix of the East Angles.

But after the death of Finan, who succeeded him, when Colman, who was also sent from
Scotland,459 came to be bishop, a greater controversy arose about the
observance of Easter, and other rules of ecclesiastical life. Whereupon this question began naturally to influence the
thoughts and hearts of many who feared, lest haply, having received the name of Christians, they might run, or have
run, in vain. This reached the ears of the rulers, King Oswy and his son Alchfrid. Now Oswy, having been instructed and
baptized by the Scots, and being very perfectly skilled in their language, thought nothing better than what they
taught; but Alchfrid, having for his teacher in Christianity the learned Wilfrid,460 who had formerly gone to Rome to study ecclesiastical doctrine, and spent much time at Lyons
with Dalfinus,461 archbishop of Gaul, from whom also he had received the
crown of ecclesiastical tonsure, rightly thought that this man's doctrine ought to be preferred before all the
traditions of the Scots. For this reason he had also given him a monastery of forty families, at a place called
Inhrypum;462 which place, not long before, he had given for a monastery to
those that were followers of the Scots; but forasmuch as they afterwards, being left to their choice, preferred to quit
the place rather than alter their custom, he gave it to him, whose life and doctrine were worthy of it.

Agilbert, bishop of the West Saxons,463 above-mentioned, a friend of King Alchfrid and of Abbot Wilfrid, had at that time come into the province of the
Northumbrians, and was staying some time among them; at the request of Alchfrid, he made Wilfrid a priest in his
aforesaid monastery. He had in his company a priest, whose name was Agatho.464 The question being raised there concerning Easter and the tonsure and other ecclesiastical
matters, it was arranged, that a synod should be held in the monastery of Streanaeshalch,465 which signifies the Bay of the Lighthouse, where the Abbess Hilda,466 a woman devoted to the service of God, then ruled; and that there this question should be
decided. The kings, both father and son, came thither, and the bishops, Colman with his Scottish clerks, and Agilbert
with the priests Agatho and Wilfrid. James and Romanus were on their side; but the Abbess Hilda and her followers were
for the Scots, as was also the venerable Bishop Cedd,467 long before
ordained by the Scots, as has been said above, and he acted in that council as a most careful interpreter for both
parties.

King Oswy first made an opening speech, in which he said that it behoved those who served one God to observe one
rule of life; and as they all expected the same kingdom in heaven, so they ought not to differ in the celebration of
the heavenly mysteries; but rather to inquire which was the truer tradition, that it might be followed by all in
common; he then commanded his bishop, Colman, first to declare what the custom was which he observed, and whence it
derived its origin. Then Colman said, “The Easter which I keep, I received from my elders, who sent me
hither as bishop; all our forefathers, men beloved of God, are known to have celebrated it after the same manner; and
that it may not seem to any contemptible and worthy to be rejected, it is the same which the
blessed John the Evangelist, the disciple specially beloved of our Lord, with all the churches over which he presided,
is recorded to have celebrated.”468 When he had said thus much, and
more to the like effect, the king commanded Agilbert to make known the manner of his observance and to show whence it
was derived, and on what authority he followed it. Agilbert answered, “I beseech you, let my disciple,
the priest Wilfrid, speak in my stead; because we both concur with the other followers of the ecclesiastical tradition
that are here present, and he can better and more clearly explain our opinion in the English language, than I can by an
interpreter.”

Then Wilfrid, being ordered by the king to speak, began thus:—“The Easter which we keep, we saw
celebrated by all at Rome, where the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, lived, taught, suffered, and were buried; we saw
the same done by all in Italy and in Gaul, when we travelled through those countries for the purpose of study and
prayer. We found it observed in Africa, Asia, Egypt, Greece, and all the world, wherever the Church of Christ is spread
abroad, among divers nations and tongues, at one and the same time; save only among these and their accomplices in
obstinacy, I mean the Picts and the Britons, who foolishly, in these two remote islands of the ocean, and only in part
even of them, strive to oppose all the rest of the world.” When he had so said, Colman answered, “It is strange that you choose to call our efforts foolish, wherein we follow the example of so great an Apostle,
who was thought worthy to lean on our Lord's bosom, when all the world knows him to have lived most wisely.”
Wilfrid replied, “Far be it from us to charge John with folly, for he literally observed the precepts
of the Mosaic Law, whilst the Church was still Jewish in many points, and the Apostles, lest
they should give cause of offence to the Jews who were among the Gentiles, were not able at once to cast off all the
observances of the Law which had been instituted by God, in the same way as it is necessary that all who come to the
faith should forsake the idols which were invented by devils. For this reason it was, that Paul circumcised
Timothy,469 that he offered sacrifice in the temple,470 that he shaved his head with Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth;471 for no other advantage than to avoid giving offence to the Jews. Hence it was, that James said
to the same Paul, ‘Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they
are all zealous of the Law.’472 And yet, at this time, when the light
of the Gospel is spreading throughout the world, it is needless, nay, it is not lawful, for the faithful either to be
circumcised, or to offer up to God sacrifices of flesh. So John, according to the custom of the Law, began the
celebration of the feast of Easter, on the fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening, not regarding whether the
same happened on a Saturday, or any other week-day. But when Peter preached at Rome, being mindful that our Lord arose
from the dead, and gave to the world the hope of resurrection, on the first day of the week, he perceived that Easter
ought to be kept after this manner: he always awaited the rising of the moon on the fourteenth day of the first month
in the evening, according to the custom and precepts of the Law, even as John did. And when that came, if the Lord's
day, then called the first day of the week, was the next day, he began that very evening to celebrate Easter, as we all
do at the present time. But if the Lord's day did not fall the next morning after the fourteenth moon, but on the
sixteenth, or the seventeenth, or any other moon till the twenty-first, he waited for that, and on the Saturday before,
in the evening, began to observe the holy solemnity of Easter. Thus it came to pass, that
Easter Sunday was only kept from the fifteenth moon to the twenty-first. Nor does this evangelical and apostolic
tradition abolish the Law, but rather fulfil it; the command being to keep the passover from the fourteenth moon of the
first month in the evening to the twenty-first moon of the same month in the evening; which observance all the
successors of the blessed John in Asia, since his death, and all the Church throughout the world, have since followed;
and that this is the true Easter, and the only one to be celebrated by the faithful, was not newly decreed by the
council of Nicaea, but only confirmed afresh; as the history of the Church informs us.473

“Thus it is plain, that you, Colman, neither follow the example of John, as you imagine, nor that of
Peter, whose tradition you oppose with full knowledge, and that you neither agree with the Law nor the Gospel in the
keeping of your Easter. For John, keeping the Paschal time according to the decree of the Mosaic Law, had no regard to
the first day of the week, which you do not practise, seeing that you celebrate Easter only on the first day after the
Sabbath. Peter celebrated Easter Sunday between the fifteenth and the twenty-first moon, which you do not practise,
seeing that you observe Easter Sunday from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon; so that you often begin Easter on the
thirteenth moon in the evening, whereof neither the Law made any mention, nor did our Lord, the Author and Giver of the
Gospel, on that day either eat the old passover in the evening, or deliver the Sacraments of the New Testament, to be
celebrated by the Church, in memory of His Passion, but on the fourteenth. Besides, in your celebration of Easter, you
utterly exclude the twenty-first moon, which the Law ordered to be specially observed. Thus, as I have said before, you
agree neither with John nor Peter, nor with the Law, nor the Gospel, in the celebration of the greatest
festival.”

To this Colman rejoined: “Did the holy Anatolius,474 much commended in the history of the Church, judge contrary to the Law and the Gospel, when
he wrote, that Easter was to be celebrated from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon? Is it to be believed that our
most reverend Father Columba and his successors, men beloved by God, who kept Easter after the same manner, judged or
acted contrary to the Divine writings? Whereas there were many among them, whose sanctity was attested by heavenly
signs and miracles which they wrought; whom I, for my part, doubt not to be saints, and whose life, customs, and
discipline I never cease to follow.”

“It is evident,” said Wilfrid, “that Anatolius was a most holy, learned, and
commendable man; but what have you to do with him, since you do not observe his decrees? For he undoubtedly, following
the rule of truth in his Easter, appointed a cycle of nineteen years, which either you are ignorant of, or if you know
it, though it is kept by the whole Church of Christ, yet you despise it as a thing of naught. He so computed the
fourteenth moon in our Lord's Paschal Feast, that according to the custom of the Egyptians, he acknowledged it to be
the fifteenth moon on that same day in the evening; so in like manner he assigned the twentieth to Easter-Sunday, as
believing that to be the twenty-first moon, when the sun had set. That you are ignorant of the rule of this distinction
is proved by this, that you sometimes manifestly keep Easter before the full moon, that is, on the thirteenth day.
Concerning your Father Columba and his followers, whose sanctity you say you imitate, and whose rule and precepts
confirmed by signs from Heaven you say that you follow, I might answer, then when many, in the day of judgement, shall
say to our Lord, that in His name they have prophesied, and have cast out devils, and done many wonderful works, our
Lord will reply, that He never knew them. But far be it from me to speak thus of your fathers, for it is much more just
to believe good than evil of those whom we know not. Wherefore I do not deny those also to have been God's servants,
and beloved of God, who with rude simplicity, but pious intentions, have themselves loved
Him. Nor do I think that such observance of Easter did them much harm, as long as none came to show them a more perfect
rule to follow; for assuredly I believe that, if any teacher, reckoning after the Catholic manner, had come among them,
they would have as readily followed his admonitions, as they are known to have kept those commandments of God, which
they had learned and knew.

“But as for you and your companions, you certainly sin, if, having heard the decrees of the
Apostolic see, nay, of the universal Church, confirmed, as they are, by Holy Scripture, you scorn to follow them; for,
though your fathers were holy, do you think that those few men, in a corner of the remotest island, are to be preferred
before the universal Church of Christ throughout the world? And if that Columba of yours, (and, I may say, ours also,
if he was Christ's servant,) was a holy man and powerful in miracles, yet could he be preferred before the most blessed
chief of the Apostles, to whom our Lord said, ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of
Heaven?’ ”475

When Wilfrid had ended thus, the king said, “Is it true, Colman, that these words were spoken to
Peter by our Lord?” He answered, “It is true, O king!” Then said he, “Can
you show any such power given to your Columba?” Colman answered, “None.” Then again the
king asked, “Do you both agree in this, without any controversy, that these words were said above all
to Peter, and that the keys of the kingdom of Heaven were given to him by our Lord?” They both answered,
“Yes.” Then the king concluded, “And I also say unto you, that he is the
door-keeper, and I will not gainsay him, but I desire, as far as I know and am able, in all things to obey his laws,
lest haply when I come to the gates of the kingdom of Heaven, there should be none to open
them, he being my adversary who is proved to have the keys.” The king having said this, all who were seated
there or standing by, both great and small, gave their assent, and renouncing the less perfect custom, hastened to
conform to that which they had found to be better.

461. Really Annemundus. He was Archbishop of Lyons. Cf. V, 8, note on Godwin. He is confused with his brother Dalfinus, Count of Lyons: v. V, 19, p. 348, note.

462. Ripon. For the preposition, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5. The monastery was first given to Eata (v. c. 26), to be organized by him, and among the monks he brought with him from Melrose was
Cuthbert (cf. IV, 27). They were forced to retire in 661, but after the
Synod of Whitby they conformed to the Catholic rules.

463. Cf. c. 7, where Bede's summary account
obscures the sequence of events. Here he is still called Bishop of the West Saxons. It is probable that he had retired
from Wessex by this time, but had not yet gone to Gaul. He did not become Bishop of Paris before 666, for in that year
we find his predecessor, Importunus, witnessing a “privilegium” for a nunnery at Soissons.

468. The practice of the churches of Asia, traditionally derived from St. John, was
to disregard the day of the week and observe as Easter Day the 14th of the month Nisan. Therefore the claim to the
authority of St. John, advanced by the Celts, was inaccurate and gives some colour to the charge, often brought against
them, of being “Quartodecimans.”

Chap. xxvi. How Colman, being worsted, returned home; and Tuda succeeded him in the bishopric; and of the state of
the church under those teachers. [664 a.d.]

The disputation being ended, and the assembly broken up, Agilbert returned home. Colman, perceiving
that his doctrine was rejected, and his party despised, took with him those who wished to follow him, to wit, such as
would not accept the Catholic Easter and the tonsure in the form of a crown,476 (for there was no small dispute about that also,) and went back into Scotland,477 to consult with his people what was to be done in this case. Cedd, forsaking the
practices of the Scots, returned to his bishopric, having submitted to the Catholic observance of Easter. This debate
took place in the year of our Lord 664, which was the twenty-second year of the reign of King Oswy, and the thirtieth
of the episcopate of the Scots among the English; for Aidan was bishop seventeen years, Finan ten, and Colman
three.

When Colman had gone back into his own country, Tuda, the servant of Christ, was made bishop of the
Northumbrians478 in his place, having been instructed and ordained bishop
among the Southern Scots, having also the crown of the ecclesiastical tonsure, according to the custom of that
province, and observing the Catholic rule with regard to the time of Easter.479 He was a good and religious man, but he governed the church a very short time; he had come from
Scotland480 whilst Colman was yet bishop, and,
both by word and deed, diligently taught all men those things that appertain to the faith and truth. But Eata,481 who was abbot of the monastery called Mailros,482 a man most reverend and gentle, was appointed abbot over the brethren that chose to remain in
the church of Lindisfarne, when the Scots went away. It is said that Colman, upon his departure, requested and obtained
this of King Oswy, because Eata was one of Aidan's twelve boys of the English nation,483 whom he received in the early years of his episcopate, to be instructed in Christ; for the king
greatly loved Bishop Colman on account of his innate discretion. This is that Eata, who, not long after, was made
bishop of the same church of Lindisfarne. Colman carried home with him part of the bones of the most reverend Father
Aidan, and left part of them in the church where he had presided, ordering them to be interred in the sacristy.

The place which they governed shows how frugal and temperate he and his predecessors were, for there were very few
houses besides the church found at their departure; indeed, no more than were barely sufficient to make civilized life
possible; they had also no money, but only cattle; for if they received any money from rich persons, they immediately
gave it to the poor; there being no need to gather money, or provide houses for the entertainment of the great men of
the world; for such never resorted to the church, except to pray and hear the Word of God. The king himself, when
occasion required, came only with five or six servants, and having performed his devotions in the church, departed. But
if they happened to take a repast there, they were satisfied with the plain, daily food of the brethren, and required no more. For the whole care of those teachers was to serve God, not the world — to feed the
soul, and not the belly.

For this reason the religious habit was at that time held in great veneration; so that wheresoever any clerk or monk
went, he was joyfully received by all men, as God's servant; and even if they chanced to meet him upon the way, they
ran to him, and with bowed head, were glad to be signed with the cross by his hand, or blessed by his lips. Great
attention was also paid to their exhortations; and on Sundays they flocked eagerly to the church, or the monasteries,
not to feed their bodies, but to hear the Word of God; and if any priest happened to come into a village, the
inhabitants came together and asked of him the Word of life; for the priests and clerks went to the villages for no
other reason than to preach, baptize, visit the sick, and, in a word, to take care of souls; and they were so purified
from all taint of avarice, that none of them received lands and possessions for building monasteries, unless they were
compelled to do so by the temporal authorities; which custom was for some time after universally observed in the
churches of the Northumbrians. But enough has now been said on this subject.

482. Old Melrose, “Quod Tuidi fluminis circumflexu maxima ex parte
clauditur,”V, 12. The more famous monastery is of later date and
is to the west of the older site.

483. Cf. c. 3, ad fin.
(where, however, there is only a general allusion to the instruction of English children). It has been suggested that
they may have been redeemed from slavery. Cf. c. 5, p. 145.

Chap. xxvii. How Egbert, a holy man of the English nation, led a monastic life in Ireland. [664 a.d.]

In the same year of our Lord 664, there happened an eclipse of the sun, on the third day of
May,484 about the tenth hour of the day. In the same year, a sudden
pestilence485 depopulated first the southern parts of Britain, and afterwards attacking the province of the Northumbrians, ravaged the country far and
near, and destroyed a great multitude of men. By this plague the aforesaid priest of the Lord, Tuda,486 was carried off, and was honourably buried in the monastery called
Paegnalaech.487 Moreover, this plague prevailed no less disastrously in the
island of Ireland. Many of the nobility, and of the lower ranks of the English nation, were there at that time, who, in
the days of the Bishops Finan and Colman, forsaking their native island, retired thither, either for the sake of sacred
studies, or of a more ascetic life; and some of them presently devoted themselves faithfully to a monastic life, others
chose rather to apply themselves to study, going about from one master's cell to another. The Scots willingly received
them all, and took care to supply them with daily food without cost, as also to furnish them with books for their
studies, and teaching free of charge.

Among these were Ethelhun and Egbert,488 two youths of great capacity, of
the English nobility. The former of whom was brother to Ethelwin,489 a man
no less beloved by God, who also at a later time went over into Ireland to study, and having been well instructed,
returned into his own country, and being made bishop in the province of Lindsey, long and nobly governed the Church.
These two being in the monastery which in the language of the Scots is called Rathmelsigi,490 and having lost all their companions, who were either cut off by the plague, or dispersed into
other places, were both seized by the same sickness, and grievously afflicted. Of these, Egbert, (as I was informed by
a priest venerable for his age, and of great veracity, who declared he had heard the story
from his own lips,) concluding that he was at the point of death, went out of the chamber, where the sick lay, in the
morning, and sitting alone in a fitting place, began seriously to reflect upon his past actions, and, being full of
compunction at the remembrance of his sins, bedewed his face with tears, and prayed fervently to God that he might not
die yet, before he could forthwith more fully make amends for the careless offences which he had committed in his
boyhood and infancy, or might further exercise himself in good works. He also made a vow that he would spend all his
life abroad and never return into the island of Britain, where he was born; that besides singing the psalms at the
canonical hours, he would, unless prevented by bodily infirmity, repeat the whole Psalter daily to the praise of God;
and that he would every week fast one whole day and night. Returning home, after his tears and prayers and vows, he
found his companion asleep; and going to bed himself, he began to compose himself to rest. When he had lain quiet
awhile, his comrade awaking, looked on him, and said, “Alas! Brother Egbert, what have you done? I was
in hopes that we should have entered together into life everlasting; but know that your prayer is granted.” For
he had learned in a vision what the other had requested, and that he had obtained his request.

In brief, Ethelhun died the next night; but Egbert, throwing off his sickness, recovered and lived a long time after
to grace the episcopal office, which he received, by deeds worthy of it;491
and blessed with many virtues, according to his desire, lately, in the year of our Lord 729, being ninety years of age,
he departed to the heavenly kingdom. He passed his life in great perfection of humility, gentleness, continence,
simplicity, and justice. Thus he was a great benefactor, both to his own people, and to those nations of the Scots and
Picts among whom he lived in exile, by the example of his life, his earnestness in teaching,
his authority in reproving, and his piety in giving away of those things which he received from the rich. He also added
this to the vows which we have mentioned: during Lent, he would eat but one meal a day, allowing himself nothing but
bread and thin milk, and even that by measure. The milk, new the day before, he kept in a vessel, and skimming off the
cream in the morning, drank the rest, as has been said, with a little bread. Which sort of abstinence he likewise
always observed forty days before the Nativity of our Lord, and as many after the solemnity of Pentecost, that is, of
the fifty days' festival.

485. Called the “Yellow Pest” from the colour of its victims.
It was a bubonic plague; it probably came from the East and was the same as that which raged in Europe in Justinian's
reign. There were several outbreaks in England in the seventh century, but this was the most virulent. For subsequent
visitations, cf. IV, 7, 14,
19.

487. The Saxon Chronicle has “on Wagele,” which is supposed
to be Whalley, on the borders of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, but the name varies greatly in different
chroniclers. Smith considers that Bede's form “Paegnalaech” or “Paegnalech” points to Finchale (Wincanheale, in Simeon of Durham, or Pincahala), near Durham.

Chap. xxviii. How, when Tuda was dead, Wilfrid was ordained, in Gaul, and Ceadda, among the West Saxons, to be
bishops for the province of the Northumbrians. [664 a.d.]

In the meantime, King Alchfrid sent the priest, Wilfrid, to the king of Gaul,492 in order that he should cause him to be consecrated bishop for himself and his
people. That prince sent him to be ordained by Agilbert,493 of whom we have
before spoken, and who, having left Britain, was made bishop of the city of Paris;494 and by him Wilfrid was honourably consecrated, several bishops meeting together for that purpose
in a village belonging to the king, called In Compendio.495 He stayed some
time in the parts beyond the sea for his ordination, and King Oswy, following the example of
his son's zeal, sent into Kent a holy man, of modest character, well read in the Scripture, and diligently practising
those things which he had learned therein, to be ordained bishop of the church of York. This was a priest called
Ceadda,496 brother to the most reverend prelate Cedd, of whom mention has
been often made, and abbot of the monastery of Laestingaeu. With him the king also sent his priest Eadhaed,497 who was afterwards, in the reign of Egfrid,498 made bishop of the church of Ripon. Now when they arrived in Kent, they found that Archbishop
Deusdedit had departed this life, and no other bishop was as yet appointed in his place; whereupon they betook
themselves to the province of the West Saxons, where Wini was bishop, and by him Ceadda was consecrated; two bishops of
the British nation, who kept Easter Sunday, as has been often said, contrary to the canonical manner, from the
fourteenth to the twentieth moon, being called in to assist at the ordination; for at that time there was no other
bishop in all Britain canonically ordained, except Wini.499

So Ceadda, being consecrated bishop, began immediately to labour for ecclesiastical truth and purity of doctrine; to apply himself to humility, self-denial, and study; to travel about, not on horseback,
but after the manner of the Apostles, on foot, to preach the Gospel in towns, the open country, cottages, villages, and
castles; for he was one of the disciples of Aidan, and endeavoured to instruct his people by the same manner of life
and character, after his and his own brother Cedd's example. Wilfrid also having been now made a bishop, came into
Britain, and in like manner by his teaching brought into the English Church many rules of Catholic observance. Whence
it followed, that the Catholic principles daily gained strength, and all the Scots that dwelt in England either
conformed to these, or returned into their own country.

492. In 664. This was the young “Fainéant” king of Neustria,
Clothaire III. Wilfrid was probably sent abroad at his own request. Doubtless he desired to have the canonical number
of three bishops at his consecration, and Boniface of Dunwich (c. 20; IV, 5) was the only prelate in England whose orders he would have regarded as
entirely satisfactory, for Wini might be considered a usurper, and Cedd and Jaruman had been consecrated by
schismatics. Archbishop Deusdedit was dead (III, 20, note) and so probably was
Damian of Rochester.

495. Compiègne, a royal “villa.” For the preposition,
v.II, 14, note. The ceremony was a specially
magnificent one, Wilfrid being carried in a golden chair by twelve bishops in choral procession, according to an
ancient custom of the Gallican Church.

496.Preface, III, 23, et saep. Why Oswy, who had consented to Wilfrid's consecration
(v.V, 19) acted in this manner is not clear.
Probably it implies that the Celtic party, during Wilfrid's prolonged absence, had to some extent recovered their
ascendency; and, if it was at this time that Alchfrid (who is not heard of again) rebelled against his father
(v.s. c. 14, ad init.) and was
deprived of his kingdom, Wilfrid would have lost his warmest supporter.

497. He retired to Ripon from Lindsey, of which he was the first separate bishop,
when Ethelred recovered that province for Mercia in 679. But cf. IV, 12,
ad fin., note, for the statement that he was “Bishop” of Ripon.

499. It does not appear why Boniface (Bertgils) of Dunwich, Bishop of the East
Angles, 652-669 (c. 20, IV, 5), is
ignored. Ceadda's consecration was afterwards regarded as of doubtful validity and was completed by Theodore
(v.IV, 12). The British (probably Cornish)
bishops were schismatical, and Wini's position was irregular. Moreover, the see to which Ceadda was consecrated was not
vacant.

Chap. xxix. How the priest Wighard was sent from Britain to Rome, to be ordained archbishop; of his death there,
and of the letters of the Apostolic Pope giving an account thereof. [667 a.d.]

At this time the most noble kings of the English, Oswy, of the province of the Northumbrians, and
Egbert of Kent, consulted together to determine what ought to be done about the state of the English Church, for Oswy,
though educated by the Scots, had rightly perceived that the Roman was the Catholic and Apostolic Church. They
selected, with the consent and by the choice of the holy Church of the English nation, a priest named Wighard,500 one of Bishop Deusdedit's clergy, a good man and fitted for the episcopate, and
sent him to Rome to be ordained bishop, to the end that, having been raised to the rank of an archbishop, he might
ordain Catholic prelates for the Churches of the English nation throughout all Britain. But Wighard, arriving at Rome,
was cut off by death, before he could be consecrated bishop, and the following letter was sent back into Britain to
King Oswy:—

“To the most excellent lord, our son, Oswy, king of theSaxons, Vitalian,501bishop, servant of the servants of God. We have received to our comfort your Excellency's letters;
by reading whereof we are acquainted with your most pious devotion and fervent love of the blessed life; and know that
by the protecting hand of God you have been converted to the true and Apostolic faith, in hope that even as you reign
in your own nation, so you may hereafter reign with Christ. Blessed be the nation, therefore, that has been found
worthy to have as its king one so wise and a worshipper of God; forasmuch as he is not himself alone a worshipper of
God, but also studies day and night the conversion of all his subjects to the Catholic and Apostolic faith, to the
redemption of his own soul. Who would not rejoice at hearing such glad tidings? Who would not exult and be joyful at
these good works? For your nation has believed in Christ the Almighty God, according to the words of the Divine
prophets, as it is written in Isaiah, ‘In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand
for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.’502 And
again, ‘Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far.’503 And a little after, ‘It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to
raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the outcast of Israel. I have given thee for a light to the Gentiles, that
thou mayst be my salvation unto the end of the earth.’504 And again,
‘Kings shall see, princes also shall arise and worship.’505 And immediately after, ‘I have given thee for a covenant of the people, to
establish the earth, and possess the scattered heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that
are in darkness, Show yourselves.’506 And again, ‘I
the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and have held thine hand, and have kept thee, and have given thee for a
covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoner from the prison,
and them that sit in darkness from the prison-house.’507

“Behold, most excellent son, how it is plain as day that it was prophesied not only of you, but also
of all the nations, that they should believe in Christ, the Creator of all things. Wherefore it behoves your Highness,
as being a member of Christ, in all things continually to follow the pious rule of the chief of the Apostles, in
celebrating Easter, and in all things delivered by the holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, whose doctrine daily enlightens
the hearts of believers, even as the two lights of heaven illumine the world.”

And after some lines, wherein he speaks of celebrating the true Easter uniformly throughout all the world —

“Finally,” he adds, “we have not been able now, on account of the length of
the journey, to find a man, apt to teach, and qualified in all respects to be a bishop, according to the tenor of your
letters.508 But, assuredly, as soon as such a fit person shall be found, we
will send him well instructed to your country, that he may, by word of mouth, and through the Divine oracles, with the
blessing of God, root out all the enemy's tares throughout your island. We have received the presents sent by your
Highness to the blessed chief of the Apostles, for an eternal memorial of him, and return you thanks, and always pray
for your safety with the clergy of Christ. But he that brought these presents has been removed out of this world, and
is buried at the threshold of the Apostles, for whom we have been much grieved, because he died here. Nevertheless, we
have caused the blessed gifts of the saints, that is, the relics of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and of the
holy martyrs, Laurentius, John, and Paul, and Gregory, and Pancratius,509 to
be given to your servants, the bearers of these our letters, to be by them delivered to your
Excellency. And to your consort510 also, our spiritual daughter, we have by
the aforesaid bearers sent a cross, with a gold key to it, made out of the most holy chains of the blessed Apostles,
Peter and Paul; for, hearing of her pious zeal, all the Apostolic see rejoices with us, even as her pious works smell
sweet and blossom before God.

“We therefore desire that your Highness should hasten, according to our wish, to dedicate all your
island to Christ our God; for assuredly you have for your Protector, the Redeemer of mankind, our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who will prosper you in all things, that you may gather together a new people of Christ, establishing there the
Catholic and Apostolic faith. For it is written, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.’511
Truly your Highness seeks, and shall obtain, and all your islands shall be made subject to you, even as we desire.
Saluting your Excellency with fatherly affection, we never cease to pray to the Divine Goodness, to vouchsafe to assist
you and yours in all good works, that you may reign with Christ in the world to come. May the Heavenly Grace preserve
your Excellency in safety!”

In the next book we shall have a more suitable occasion to show who was selected and consecrated in Wighard's
place.

508. It has not been stated that Oswy and Egbert asked the Pope to provide an
archbishop, failing Wighard. But this seems to be implied in IV, 1:
“episcopum, quem petierant.” Or, as is generally supposed, Vitalian may have arbitrarily assumed
this to be the intention of their letter.

509. There were several martyrs of the name of Laurentius, but the best known is the
Roman deacon, St. Laurence, who suffered at Rome in 258 a.d. He was buried in the Via
Tiburtina, where a church dedicated to him is said to have been founded by Constantine the Great. On the site stands
the present Church of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, the older part of which dates from the sixth century at least. One of
Aldhelm's foundations (V, 18) was a little church dedicated to St.
Laurence at Bradford-on-Avon in 705, probably the small Saxon church which still stands there. There were many martyrs
named John and Paul, and more than one Gregory. St. Pancras was a boy-martyr, a Phrygian by birth, who suffered at Rome
in 304 a.d., when he was only fourteen years of age. His martyrdom was widely celebrated, and
miraculous powers were attributed to his tomb outside the walls of Rome. An old British church at Canterbury, which had
been desecrated by the heathen invaders, was restored for Christian use and dedicated to St. Pancras by Augustine.

Chap. xxx. How the East Saxons, during a pestilence, returned to idolatry, but were soon brought back from their
error by the zeal of Bishop Jaruman. [665 a.d.]

At the same time, the Kings Sighere and Sebbi,512 though
themselves subject to Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, governed the province of the East Saxons after Suidhelm, of whom
we have spoken above.513 When that province was suffering from the aforesaid
disastrous plague, Sighere, with his part of the people, forsook the mysteries of the Christian faith, and turned
apostate. For the king himself, and many of the commons and nobles, loving this life, and not seeking after another, or
even not believing in any other, began to restore the temples that had been abandoned, and to adore idols, as if they
might by those means be protected against the plague. But Sebbi, his companion and co-heir in the kingdom, with all his
people, very devoutly preserved the faith which he had received, and, as we shall show hereafter, ended his faithful
life in great felicity.

King Wulfhere, hearing that the faith of the province was in part profaned, sent Bishop Jaruman,514 who was successor to Trumhere, to correct their error, and recall the province
to the true faith. He acted with much discretion, as I was informed by a priest who bore him company in that journey,
and had been his fellow labourer in the Word, for he was a religious and good man, and travelling through all the
country, far and near, brought back both the people and the aforesaid king to the way of righteousness, so that, either
forsaking or destroying the temples and altars which they had erected, they opened the churches, and gladly confessed
the Name of Christ, which they had opposed, choosing rather to die in the faith of resurrection in Him, than to live in
the abominations of unbelief among their idols. Having thus accomplished their works, the priests and teachers returned
home with joy.